A Painter's Progress - A Portrait of Lucian Freud
Author(s): David Dawson
For nearly twenty years David Dawson was Lucian Freud's assistant, companion and model. Freud was famously private. He carefully avoided distraction. With few exceptions, he only wanted those he knew well, like the late Bruce Bernard, to photograph him. David Dawson was in a unique position and Freud became comfortable in the presence of his camera. Photographing became part of the daily round of the studio. The results revealed many stages of paintings in progress. Few artists, if any, have had their lives and their work recorded over such a length of time. Among those who regularly visited Freud were figures from the art world, including John Richardson, David Hockney and Frank Auerbach, along with a flow of models and friends. He was as happy in the company of Kate Moss as he was with the Duke of Beaufort. Despite his sense of privacy, Freud's circle was wide. The book begins in Freud's old studio in Holland Park and then records the artist in his eighteenth-century house, the first floor of which was his final studio. It ends with views of the rooms in which Freud's own extraordinary collection of paintings was hung. It is the only record of the house before the dispersal of the art on his death. Ultimately David Dawson's photographs create an intimate portrait of the man. The final images are of the hanging of Preud's work in his posthumous London exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
Product Information
A hidden look at Lucian Freud, one of the greatest British painters, through the lens of his assistant
"The beauty of [Dawson's] images is not in the immaculate execution but in the minute details of Freud's private life that they uncover... As much a celebration of friendship as it is of the great artist." Aesthetic Magazine "A volume that offers an intimate view of the artist's life and work." Apollo "As beautiful as it is revealing." Porter "Dawson, Freud's assistant and a painter himself, has the artist's eye for a beautiful and telling image." -- Martin Gayford Spectator "It's on my Christmas present list!" -- Christine Bridger Four Shires
Lucian Freud was born in Berlin in 1922. He was the grandson of Sigmund Freud. His work has been recognised and exhibited since 1944 in the major museums worldwide. His recent shows include a retrospective at the Tate, an exhibition on Constable which he selected for the Grand Palais in Paris and a show at the Wallace Collection, London. He will be shown at the next Venice Biennale. David Dawson is a painter, and photographer. After leaving the Royal College of Art in 1989 he worked for many years as Lucian Freud's assistant until Freud's death. He now divides his time mostly between London and Wales, but currently he is also painting in New York. His exhibition Working with Lucian Freud was held at Pallant House in Chichester in 2012. His frst solo exhibition was at Marlborough Fine Art in London in 2013.
General Fields
- :
- : Vintage
- : Jonathan Cape Ltd
- : 2.256
- : 01 October 2014
- : 295mm X 292mm
- : United Kingdom
- : books
Special Fields
- : David Dawson
- : Hardback
- : Nov-14
- : en
- : 759.2
- : 276
- : illustrations