When one person walked into painter Lucian Freud’s London studio to be photographed, she knew she would be trapped in artistic chaos for many hours in a confined space. In no case should he leave until the artist had decided. The result was never flattering, but Sigmund Freud’s grandson didn’t lie, he warned her before walking through the door that it would take a long time and that the final painting would be something of a coroner’s work. “He tries to capture the passage of time and with his way of painting, with the accumulation of paint, he creates this effect of decay,” describes Paloma Alarcó, curator of the Lucian Freud exhibition. New Perspectives at the Thyssen Museum in Madrid until June 18th.
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All portrayed accepted the agreement. It could take Freud more than 100 hours to complete a painting. So the meetings lasted forever. Some went to his studio in the morning, others had the night session in a room with paneled windows. Because of this, it is common for the protagonists in his paintings to appear asleep. What is not seen in this anthology, which first passed the National Gallery in London and coincides with the centenary of one of the UK’s great painters, are symptoms of anger. Some of his characters, in most cases his family and friends, have written in several books that they accepted being part of the ritual of a man whom they described as captivating and with a very attractive personality. “Freud didn’t stop talking and also chose the topics based on the model,” explains Alarcó as we walk through the exhibition.
Jerry Hall, model and ex-wife of Mick Jagger, was one of the few who didn’t have patience. The consequence is found in the 1998 painting Great Interior. The actress also appears in the background, nursing a baby, but her head is that of a man, that of Freud’s assistant, David Dawson.
Baron Thyssen, a collector and admirer of Freud, was portrayed on two occasions. They liked to talk about art, the curator recalls. In one of the two paintings, the smaller one, the founder of the museum appears with a fragment of the work of Antoine Watteau Pierrot from around 1712, which belongs to the Baron’s collection. It’s a reproduction that Freud pinned to the wall. It was not only a nod to those portrayed, but also another example of the artist’s admiration for the great masters. “He was very interested in Titian, Velázquez, he had plays by Rodin, Courbet,” explains Alarcó. Freud had a night pass to the National Gallery, where he spent hours looking at paintings. “In Madrid I always visited the Prado,” accompanies the exhibition manager.
Detail of Lucian Freud’s painting Man in a Chair (Baron HH Thyssen-Bornemisza) from the exhibition Lucian Freud. New Perspectives” at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Andrea Comas
Nor did he make any concessions to the Baron, although these pieces are part of his commissioned collection. This series of paintings he accepted more than once for the money he needed because his passion for horse betting led him to ruin three times. In the second, larger portrait, the collector appears seated, hands resting on his legs, huge hands, deformed almost like claws. The piece belongs to his daughter Francesca Thyssen, who has announced that she will donate it to the museum. For four years Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza went to his studio and like the other people he painted he never posed. “Freud said that it’s not natural for someone to pose, and that if they spent hours and hours in front of him, they would start to create their own selves, despite being given precise instructions,” says Alarcó.
A worker observes the painting “Girl’s Head” in the Thyssen Andrea Comas Museum
It’s easy to tell who Freud painted, although he never included proper names in his titles. His daughter, for example, is the head of a girl. His paintings of gay couples are Two Men and Naked Man and His Friend. “He was looking for a reason to paint, not for a name, for a character”, Alarcó clarifies, referring to one of the sentences printed on one of the walls of the exhibition rooms: “The ingredient without which painting cannot exist : PAINT”. “He is a master of textures. He always said that he likes to take reality to the extreme with his brushes,” continues the expert, who neither classifies him as a hyperrealist nor frames him abstractly, but rather gives him the Attributes to the painter’s category.
A woman speaks in front of the painting ‘Two Men’ by Lucian Freud.Andrea Comas
The Thyssen, with more than 50 works, focuses the exhibition on this pictorial facet, with a specific chronological route, but tries to avoid the feminist criticism that accused him of “misogyny and homophobia”. “Women are blonde, almost always nude, with pink cheeks and genitals, while homosexuals are passive or monstrous,” he wrote. “Real men are dressed, seated to be portrayed, and their folds and irregularities represent character,” wrote art historian Linda Nochlin in 1993 at a show at the Metropolitan in New York.
Lucian Freud’s painting “Naked Girl”. Andrea Comas
Alarcó does not find a reifying view of women and claims to be paraphrasing one of his daughters when asked about her nude portraits, she replied that she did not feel uncomfortable because it was the usual subject of her father’s paintings. It didn’t matter if they were part of his family, closest friends, benefactors or strangers, he painted them all from above to enhance his power over the sitter. “It’s a way of painting so that they realize that he’s the one who dominates,” says Alarcó. Freud always portrayed himself from below to emphasize this almost messianic imprint.
A woman observes “Sleeping by the Lion Carpet.” Andrea Comas
At one point in his career he stopped painting while sitting and spent the rest of his life standing up until three days before his death at the age of almost 90. This change of perspective did not stop him from maintaining his meticulous and conscientious technique. What changed were his brushes, his canvases and his models, each more voluminous. His way of painting flesh becomes coarser and more violent. It does not cover warts, scars or bumps. And so he died, painting standing and moving his athletic body, despite being plagued by drunken nights. He was unable to complete his last work, which is on display at the Thyssen. It is a portrait with a naked man looking at him from above, next to him a lying dog, another of his obsessions, animals. In the dog is his last stroke of the brush.
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