Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud OM CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impastoed portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time. His works are noted for their psychological penetration and their often discomforting examination of the relationship between artist and model...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth8 December 1922
CityBerlin, Germany
drama people creative
I've always wanted to create drama in my pictures, which is why I paint people. It's people who have brought drama to pictures from the beginning. The simplest human gestures tell stories.
routine timetables
I have a timetable, but no routine.
self-esteem naked done
The painting is always done very much with [the model's] co-operation. The problem with painting a nude, of course, is that it deepens the transaction. You can scrap a painting of someone's face and it imperils the sitter's self-esteem less than scrapping a painting of the whole naked body.
artist next interest
And, since the model he faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture, since the picture is going to be there on its own, it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model.
artist surroundings
My work is purely autobiographical... It is about myself and my surroundings.
taken quality painter
If all the qualities which a painter took from the model for his picture were really taken, no person could be painted twice.
secret taught claims
The only secret I can claim to have is concentration, and that's something that can't be taught.
morning giving-up ambitious
It is the only point of getting up every morning: to paint, to make something good, to make something even better than before, not to give up, to compete, to be ambitious.
dog love-is hatred
I have a hatred of habit and routine. And what dogs love is just that. They like regular everything, and I don't have regular anything. I have a timetable, but no routine.
flesh want doe
As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does
accurate copies faithfully hung model next since whether
Since the model he so faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture... it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model.
element fact merely revelation strike truth
There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so.
people spite
I paint people not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.
feels model painted painter preserving thinks took
The picture is all he feels about it, all he thinks worth preserving of it, all he invests it with. If all the qualities which a painter took from the model for his picture were really taken, no person could be painted twice.