Painting People...

The second exhibition I went to go and see on my trip in London was to the National Portrait Gallery. Here there was a huge amount of works by Lucian Freud. A huge gallery of his work had been brought to this gallery because of his death earlier this year. The insurance must have cost loads because there must have been over 100 paintings and even the final one of his friend David Dawson who had not been completed. I thought this exhibition was brilliant and gave a different take on things that I had seen in the last exhibition I saw the other day in Chichester. It was amazing to see all of his work styles over the years and to actually go as close as you wanted to the frame. This enabled me to get a real understanding of how he painted and the way he applied his brushstrokes. I felt the majority were painted very loosely and resembled movement. I have looked at Lucian Freud's work on many occasions before at college and school, but nothing compared to seeing his work for real life. Just managing to get tickets to this major event I was lucky because all tickets were sold out later that day. Unfortunately because of the high amount of security I was unable to capture a photograph of one of his paintings to talk about on here, nevertheless I bought a book for a very reasonable price with all of his portraits in it.

Created in 1954 it shows the separation between Freud and his second wife

I wanted to talk about a small selection of the works I saw by Lucian Freud. This composition really stood out to me viewing it on whole on a large scale. "Hotel Bedroom" was created in 1954 and was created by Freud using his favorite oil on canvas. There was a small series about his second wife here, Caroline Blackwood (1931-96). It was painted after they eloped to Paris and were living at the hotel la Louisiane. It conveys her wide eyed innocence in contrast with the second figure behind being Freud. It shows the connections that they were being drawn apart from each other as they appear in the same room but they appear to be entirely separate from each other. I think this painting really reveals a scenario of loss. Painted very delicately I think it reveals sadness to Lucian Freud's heart.

Reflection with Two Children (Self Portrait) oil on canvas, 1965

This painting was really inspiring and I realized when you stood the correct distance away from the image the person was staring down on you. From approximately guessing the length of the diagonal picture I could estimate how far away this was from the picture frame (the correct viewing for a picture). It shows a self portrait in a reflection. The towering figure shows Freud and it was the first of which he was to create and use the word "reflection" upon his subject title. He used a mirror and placed it on the floor creating a low angle with a particular viewpoint. The two figures represent his children and appear doll like in the foreground. They seem oblivious to the giant figure of their father. It felt intimidating to view.

Self Portrait, Reflection created in 2002

I think this is quite a reflective painting of Freud as an old man. It shows himself wearing a jacket but no shirt. He almost holds his scarf around his neck as if he is in pain or like a noose. This is probably because he knew he was getting old and frail. It is quite amazing that he layers up the face with lots of pigment until he seems to almost disappear into the paint on the wall behind him. I can tell you this is a very realistic painting because when I was at Chichester the other day David Dawson took photographs of Freud in old age and their studio they shared together there was a huge wall encrusted with layers of paint, as if Freud's palette was his wall. This painting therefore shows a huge sense of time; the fact that he is getting older as the amount of oil paint that has been built up on the wall behind him. Being interested at the moment with time and movement I think this really fits in well with my work. I had really enjoyed this exhibition as well as the previous about Lucian Freud the other day at Chichester. After researching him for many years it was brilliant to finally see his work in first hand experience.