The Lives of Lucian Freud: YOUTH 1922 - 1968

by William Feaver

SELECTED AS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, SUNDAY TIMES, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT AND SPECTATORSHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019'This exceptional book is far from standard biography . A compendium of high-grade gossip about everyone from Princess Margaret to the Krays, a tour of the immediate post-war art world, a snapshot of grimy London and a narrative of Freud's career and rackety life and loves . Leaves the ready itchy for volume two' SUNDAY TIMES, ART BOOK OF THE YEAR'Brilliant . Freud would have approved' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Sparkling' SUNDAY TIMES 'Superlative . packed with stories' GUARDIAN'Brilliant and compendious ... It does justice to Lucian' FRANK AUERBACH'A tremendous read. Anyone interested in British art needs it' ANDREW MARR, NEW STATESMANThough ferociously private, Lucian Freud spoke every week for decades to his close confidante and collaborator William Feaver - about painting and the art world, but also about his life and loves. The result is this a unique, electrifying biography, shot through with Freud's own words.In Youth, the first of two volumes, Feaver conjures Freud's early Sigmund Freud's grandson, born into a middle-class Jewish family in Weimar Berlin, escaping Nazi Germany in 1934 before being dropped into successive English public schools. Following Freud through art school, his time in the Navy during the war, his post-war adventures in Paris and Greece, and his return to Soho - consorting with duchesses and violent criminals, out on the town with Greta Garbo and Princess Margaret - Feaver traces a brilliant, difficult young man's coming of age.An account of a century told through one of its most important artists, The Lives of Lucian Freud is a landmark in the story its subject and in the art of biography itself.

Genres: Biography, Art, Nonfiction

704 pages, Hardcover

Published September 5, 2019

Reviews

[Lewis Woolston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucian Freud seems to have been born with the belief that he would make it as an artist. A supreme confidence in his own talent which permitted no doubt and meant he never bothered with a regular day job or a plan B in case art didn't pay off.
As it turned out he was right to be confident.
He also seems to have had the firm idea that being a talented artist meant he was exempt from the usual standards of decency and morality. He spent a great deal of his life, drinking gambling and fornicating with wild abandon.
I personally enjoy stories about bohemian scenes of days gone by (a relic of my own sheltered Christian upbringing perhaps) so i was happy to read about the Colony Club and London back in the day but i can see how it might not grab other readers.
There is probably a bit too much information here, it's obvious the author is an ardent admirer of Freud's and has perhaps gone overboard. All the same it's quite readable and enjoyable if you like reading about artists and bohemian life.

[Paul Dembina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can to this book via a slightly circuitous route.

1. I read Iain Sinclair's fictional imagining of the life of photographer John Deakin Pariah Genius
2. Deakin provided many photographs that were subsequently used by Francis Bacon as subjects for his paintings so that lead me to the biography Francis Bacon: Revelations

Bacon and Lucian Freud were friends for many years to that lead me to this biography.

Unfortunately I haven't enjoyed this at all. Feaver has leaned way to heavily on the many conversations the 2 of them had over the years and he resorts to verbatim quotes at length often without any independent sources to verify/disprove Freud's claims.

Freud seems to have disliked most people he came into contact with.

Even at the sentence level this book sometimes fails, there are many sentences where it's difficult to work out who is say what about whom.

I bought both volumes of this at the same time so I will slog through volume 2 at some stage.

I'd say avoid this and go instead for the 2 books that led me here

Finally, there's a heck of a lot of name-dropping of aristocrats no longer terribly well known.

Addendum: I forgot to mention thatr to complete the circle of my journey to this book, it turns out the cover image is from a photo taken by John Deakin himself

[Dr Jelly Head · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first volume of two on the life of artist Lucian Freud. Personally, I don't think I will read the second part as I feel like I got enough information out of this one and I found it to stretch out a little too much from the middle onwards, so I'm concerned that it would be similar with the other book. This one spans until his mid 40s.

I was very pleased when starting to read this, as the writing style wasn't dry, and I felt the information being given was engaging and on topic, but then as we got further into his fame more and more names started appearing (to the point where I couldn't even tell how many children this guy has because he impregnates so hard), many of which didn't feel relevant, and I honestly didn't know who was who near the end yet it made no difference.

There is a nice selection of his works in colour in two sections to reference to and look at in certain points throughout the chronology. It's interesting to see so thoroughly how being grandson to Sigmund Freud pretty much set him for life in the art world. Fame really is about who you know. Worth reading as a biography of Freud himself, but not so much on the context and analysis behind his work.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography of Lucian Freud gives a great insight into his character and the manner he went about doing his painting. Of equal interest to me was the portrait of the art circle in Britain during these years and brings together many connections between society, celebrities and the art world.
Next step is volume 2.

[Robert Ancum · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you love the paintings you have to love the man