Lucian Freud
1922–2011
© The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Images
License this image
© The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Images
License this image
In Tate Britain
Biography
Lucian Michael Freud, OM (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draftsman, specializing in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish architect Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud. His family moved to Britain in 1933 to escape the rise of Nazism. From 1942–43 he attended Goldsmiths College, London. He enlisted in the 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.
This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License. Spotted a problem? Let us know.
Read full Wikipedia entryArtworks
Lucian Freud Girl with a Kitten
1947
Lucian Freud Girl with a White Dog
1950–1
Lucian Freud Leigh Bowery
1991
Lucian Freud The Painter’s Mother IV
1973
Lucian Freud Francis Bacon
1952
Lucian Freud Naked Portrait
1972–3
Lucian Freud David and Eli
2003–4
Lucian Freud Standing by the Rags
1988–9
Artist as subject
R.B. Kitaj The Wedding
1989–93
Sir Cedric Morris, Bt Lucian Freud
1941
Lucian Freud Man with a Thistle (Self-Portrait)
1946
Helen Lessore Symposium I
1974–77
Sir Cedric Morris, Bt, recipient: Arthur Lett-Haines Telegram from Arthur Lett-Haines to Cedric Morris
8 November 1941
Sir Jacob Epstein, recipient: Peggy Jean Lewis Letter from Jacob Epstein to Peggy Jean
16 February [1955]
Sir Jacob Epstein, recipient: Peggy Jean Lewis Letter from Jacob Epstein to Peggy Jean
4 September [1954]
Sir Jacob Epstein, recipient: Peggy Jean Lewis Letter from Jacob Epstein to Peggy Jean
9 February [1959]
Prunella Clough Diary
18 November 1944–27 February 1947
Film and audio
Podcast
The Art of Failure
What does it mean to fail, and how can it lead to success? We hear the human stories behind art ...
Watch
Unlock Art: Great Double Acts
Rock band The Kills jump on a tandem to explore the art of collaboration
Watch
Unlock Art: A Brief History of Art Undressed
Television presenter and writer Dawn O'Porter takes us on a whistle-stop tour of nudity in art, from its origins ...
>
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
Listen
Late at Tate November: Behind the scenes. Sight: Gillian Cutbill
Gillian Cutbill, a Tate guide who presents audio descriptions for blind and partially sighted visitors, is describing Freud's Standing ...
Features
In the Gallery
A Queer Walk Through British Art
Discover queer responses to our collection at Tate Britain, curated by members of the LGBTQ+ community at Tate and beyond
List
Five Ways to Paint a Body
Explore different approaches to depicting the human figure through the work of five great British artists
Art Term
Figurative art
Figurative art describes any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world and particularly to the ...
Art Term
School of London
School of London was a term invented by artist R.B. Kitaj to describe a group of London-based artists who ...
Tate Etc
Lucian Freud's Girl in a Striped Nightshirt
Tate Etc. at Tate Britain / Artists' Perspectives
Tate Etc
Wish you were here: Behind the curtain
On a visit to the Tate Archive, Susie Gauntlett discovers a postcard written by a young Lucian Freud.
Tate Etc
A Rye view: Edward Burra
He had six paintings in London’s International Surrealist Exhibition in 1936, but was never formally a surrealist. His work ...
Tate Etc
Through Pasmore's eyes: Behind the curtain
In his first visit to the Tate archive, the writer Paul Bailey is surprised to find an early painted sketch ...
You might like
Frank Auerbach
born 1931
Sir William Coldstream
1908–1987
Euan Uglow
1932–2000
Heinz Koppel
1919–1980
Leon Kossoff
born 1926
Michael Andrews
1928–1995
Richard Hamilton
1922–2011
Andrew Forge
1923–2002
B.A.R. Carter
1909–2006
Peter Greenham
1909–1992
Meredith Frampton
1894–1984
Derek Hill
1916–2000
Michael Ayrton
1921–1975
R.B. Kitaj
1932–2007
Peter Blake
born 1932