Lucian Freud

A breathtaking visual biography of Freud, told through his own words, unpublished private photographs, and painted portraits

This unprecedented look at the private life of Lucian Freud begins with childhood snapshots and ends with rarely seen photographs made in his studio in the last weeks of his life. In between, the life of one of the most important artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is vividly documented – through family photos, in images of the painter in his studio with some of his most celebrated sitters, and in portraits by his peers, first among them Francis Bacon.

Editorial Reviews

*10/14/2019

Designer Holborn (William Eggleston) and Dawson, director of the Lucian Freud Archive, deliver a stunning visual biography of British painter Lucian Freud (1922-2011), for whom painting was an effort to „try and move the senses by giving an intensification of reality.“ Employing rarely published private photographs, interviews, and painted portraits, the authors explore Freud’s life, career, and influences decade by decade. Born in 1922 in Berlin, the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, Freud and his parents escaped the Nazis and moved to London in 1933, where he fell in love with art. First studying with Cedric Morris and focusing on figurative art, Freud fell under the spell of painter Francis Bacon in 1945 and began to create raw, fearless, and intense portraits that often took months to complete. By the 1990s, he turned to monumental art, creating a series of nude paintings of performance artist Leigh Bowery and others. In the 2000s, Freud painted portraits of such figures as Queen Elizabeth II and artist David Hockney (the authors include images of the artwork itself, as well as photos of him producing them). Thought provoking and engrossing, this lavishly illustrated book is a must for Freud’s fans. (Sept.)
– Publishers Weekly

‘A new book, Lucian Freud: A Life, presents his biography in pictures. It chronicles an extraordinary life from first to last: from Freud as an eight-year-old in 1930, a snapshot from Weimar-era Berlin, to the 88-year-old in London in 2011, the year of his death, laid out on his sofa like an El Greco saint… As Holborn puts it, „It is all about looking: us looking at him who in turn is looking out at the world with that penetrating stare. He was oblivious to anything else. Which is why it’s a heroic life.’ – The Financial Times

‘Thought provoking and engrossing, this lavishly illustrated book is a must for Freud’s fans.’ – Publishers Weekly Online

‘An excellent new addition to your coffee table.’ – ES magazine

‘An impressive selection.’ – Forbes Online

‘Taking its cue from previously unseen family snapshots, Lucian Freud: A Life illustrates the artists’s biography with private photographs, and intimate portraits by his peers.’ – Vogue

‘A new visual biography charts the famous Freud gaze… Overwhelmingly photographic.’ – RA Magazine

‘A sumptuous visual memoir… The smell of oil paint and charcoal dust floats off the pages.’ – The Herald

‘Despite a strong aversion to paparazzi… [Lucian Freud] was shot by more great photographers than perhaps anyone who ever lived.’ – The Spectator

‘When it come to Lucian Freud, the avalanche of admiring attention only seems to grow… (Lucian Freud: A Life) takes us all the way from a little boy on the beach in Germany to the near nonagenarian variously in bed with this pet whippet and none other than Kate Moss.’ – Evening Standard

‘A vivid pictorial companion… from childhood through to intimate shots in his studio, including Bruce Bernard’s extraordinary images of the artist painting and posing alongside Leigh Bowery… The abundance of documentation provided by these books […] contributes to the most detailed picture yet on the artist and his work.’ – The Burlington Magazine
– From the Publisher