Naked Portrait: A Memoir of my Father Lucian Freud

by Rose Boyt

Read by the author, Rose Boyt.

‘Hypnotic and propulsive’ - The Sunday Times
‘Thrilling’ - The TLS
‘Compulsive’ - The Observer

In Naked Portrait Rose Boyt explores her complicated relationship with her beloved father, Lucian Freud, drawing on a diary she kept while sitting for him and which she found five years after his death.

Nothing had been discussed, I just assumed I would be naked. I got undressed and asked him what he would like me to do. He said it was up to me.

Enthralled by his genius, Rose remembered as uncontentious and amusing all the extraordinary stories he told her to keep her entertained in the studio, but the shock of the truth is profound when she looks back. What emerges is her compassion and love not just for herself as a vulnerable young woman but for the man himself, in all his brilliant complexity.

‘Packed to the rafters with wisdom and insight, this immersive account of being the child of a genius is, itself, a work of art’ - Frances Wilson, The Telegraph ‘Books of the Year’

‘Beyond the father–daughter dynamic is an evocative tale of coming of age in London in the 1980s’ - Hettie Judah, The Times Literary Supplement

‘The unexpected miracle of the book is its emotional complexity’ - Claire Dederer, The Guardian

416 pages, Paperback

Published May 29, 2025

Reviews

[Jeff Howells · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more I read about Lucian Freud, the less I like him. A man who says things solely to shock, a man who has uncomfortable and inappropriate conversations with his (many) children. A selfish man who expects everyone to bend to his will.
This book, by his daughter is bitty. Part diary, part memoir, part biography. The diary parts feel as if they’ve been added to bulk out what would otherwise be a very slight overview of Boyt’s relationship with her father.
Was he a monster? No, but by any measure he must have been a difficult man to get on with.

[Dorte Hering]

A compelling and finely written account of growing up as the daughter of a celebrated painter with a chaotic personal life, marked by emotional intensity and perceptive insight into early instability and its psychological imprint; the final chapters, however, feel less convincing, as the portrayal of later stability sits uneasily with the depth of earlier trauma, yet it remains a striking and thoughtful work of personal literature.