LUCIEN FREUD

I always found this shot of Freud working on his portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II incredibly funny. It may be me but can you imagine any ANY other painter setting up to paint a royal portrait with an easel painting of this size? It is 6" x 9". 

It is just like a stamp! Not someone used to being rebuffed I dare say the compromise must have been that he could 'do' a portrait quite quickly and with a minimum of fuss at this size and time to produce such a thing. It is a study really and had he set up with a canvas some five foot high by four foot wide no-one would have been surprised. The full body portrait as many have done before him would have been justified. The little tiny less than life sized portrait always struck me as insulting or perhaps rude, matter of fact and somehow edgy that he had asked to paint her and thus freed up some of his 'freedom' to paint as he saw fit. If that were the case why not chose to paint something at leat life size if not bigger? Time seemed to be a factor and hence it ended up pleasing almost no-one and whilst he donated it to the Royal Collection one cannot help but wonder what it's sitter thought. Notoriously 'difficult' and known to be his own man and not to be trifled with Freud must have shown some taciturn nay curmudgeonly single mindedness to pursue his own wishes. A commission he seems have sought out it is said. So why end up with something the size of an A4 piece of paper? Just my own random thoughts but it has always made me laugh . . . 

[Andy Swapp]

“True, all my paintings are Freudian, some more than others.” – Lucian Freud 

below some of my own drawn studies from a picture I was to entitle 'a British Woman'

Study for 'A British Woman' © Andy Swapp Apr 2013

study for 'A British Woman' ©️Andy Swapp April 2013

finished sketch for 'A British Woman' © Andy Swapp April 2013