Lucian Freud's Sketchbooks

by Lucian Freud, Sarah Howgate (Introduction), Martin Gayford (Contributor)

Previously unpublished drawings from the private sketchbooks of the pre-eminent British painter offer a new perspective on the artist’s personality and artistic genius

This revelatory publication features a selection of beautifully reproduced images from the sketchbooks of Lucian Freud (1922–2011), one of the world’s greatest realist painters. Most of the sketches – which include works in pencil, pastel, and watercolor from across the artist’s long career – are published here for the first time. These fascinating images extend our understanding of Freud’s work and demonstrate the scrutiny he brought to his subjects.
 
The sketchbooks, now in the archive of the National Portrait Gallery, London, include portraits of Freud’s family members, friends, and lovers. Designs for book covers, images of his beloved dogs and horses, landscapes, and interiors appear among nudes, still lifes, and several sketches that relate to major works. Around and between the drawings are Freud’s annotations and jottings – appointments, racing tips, notes, musings – which, with startling immediacy, provide a glimpse into the working life of one of the 20th century’s most important artists. The book includes an insightful essay by Martin Gayford, who sat for portraits by Freud and knew him well, and an illustrated chronology of the artist’s life.

Genres: Art

108 pages, Hardcover

Published August 16, 2016

About the author

Lucian Michael Freud was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish architect Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud. Freud got his first name "Lucian" from his mother in memory of the ancient writer Lucian of Samosata. His family moved to England in 1933, when he was 10 years old, to escape the rise of Nazism. He became a British naturalized citizen in 1939. From 1942 to 1943 he attended Goldsmiths College, London. He served at sea with the British Merchant Navy during the Second World War.

His early career as a painter was influenced by surrealism, but by the early 1950s his often stark and alienated paintings tended towards realism. Freud was an intensely private and guarded man, and his paintings, completed over a 60-year career, are mostly of friends and family. They are generally sombre and thickly impastoed, often set in unsettling interiors and urban landscapes. The works are noted for their psychological penetration and often discomforting examination of the relationship between artist and model. Freud worked from life studies, and was known for asking for extended and punishing sittings from his models.

Reviews

[Tarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

lucian freuds gemälde sind großartig, sie heben das individuum auf ein neues niveau, machen private existenz erfahrbar. in diesen zeichnungen zeigt sich, wie vielfältig er sein zeichnerisches talent dazu nutzte, ideen rasch auf papier zu bannen oder eigene abgeschlossene werke zu schaffen. einer der ganz großen des zwanzigsten jahrhunderts auf taschenformat.

[Giovanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for a sketchbook with nice drawings to look at or copy from, this is not it. This book collects a short set of plates, exemplifying the totality of Freud's sketchbooks (~860 pages through 47 books). I must admit I was taken aback by how ugly some of the drawings are, and they're most of the plates. I can't quite fathom how such a fine draftsman could sketch so badly, I suppose he was using his non-dominant hand or someone else is the author altogether? A mystery for the historians.