The Painter Within

LUCIAN FREUD’S self portraits are a celebration of paint, and a chance to get close to the late, great artist.

- Rosalind Ormiston

Looking at Lucian Freud’s self-portraits, one observes the development and maturation of his craft. Open to experimentation with new techniques, pushing boundaries of composition, and paint application, he stated that he asked of his paintings, and his paint, to “astonish, disturb, seduce, convince.”

And, for Freud, it was always about the paint. It directed his work. “I want the paint to work as flesh,” he once said, according to artist Lawrence Gowing’s 1982 monograph. “As far as I am concerned, the paint is the person.”

Near 70 years of self-portraiture by the Berlin-born, British artist Lucian Freud is explored at London’s Royal Academy of Arts this winter in a series of more than 50 paintings and works on paper. Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits is the first exhibition to study the gradual change in the late artist’s self-portraiture, from his flat, linear and meticulously painted early works to the unflinching, confrontational fleshy masterpieces he produced in later years.

Painted at the age of 21, 1943’s Man with a Feather is Freud’s first self-portrait on record to be exhibited. The white feather refers to a love affair. The painting has a smooth, glossy surface. It was created with Ripolin enamel paint, applied with fine sable brushes, to show every small detail, yet hide the brush marks. Freud admired Picasso, who may have been the first to experiment with this commercial brand of house paint.