Artist at work, reflection

Lucien Freud • Painting, 1993, 81.7×101.2 cm
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About the artwork
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Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Portrait, Nude
Style of art: Naturalism
Technique: Oil
Materials: Canvas
Date of creation: 1993
Size: 81.7×101.2 cm
Content 18+
Artwork in selections: 17 selections
Exhibitions history

Description of the artwork «Artist at work, reflection»

It would be a mistake to believe that Lucien Freud, for most of his artistic career, portrayed naked bodies with all the truthfulness and frankness available to him, will give indulgence to himself. In the title of the self-portrait«Artist at work, reflection »hidden feature that unites all of his paintings, including those written in the genre of nude. Freud repeatedly stated that absolutely every painting, regardless of objects and genre, is a self-portrait, a kind of reflection of the artist.

Surprisingly, being an incredibly attractive man in his youth and maturity, the artist wrote his first and only nude portrait only at the age of 71 years. However, Freud would not have been Freud, he acted somehow differently. It seems that the artist was simply not interested in drawing his own body until it had acquired the desired texture. Freud portrayed himself as an outspoken old man, with all the wrinkles, swollen veins and gray hair on his body, in trampled shoes without laces, like an old satire.

The artist-model is completely open to the viewer, he seems caught unawares, but at the same time makes it clear that he has absolutely nothing to hide.

When Freud began work on this picture, he, by his own admission, faced a certain complexity. He could not correctly convey the expression. For the accustomed to critically examine their defenseless models of the artist to turn an equally impartial view of himself was not an easy task: "Drawing yourself is much harder than drawing other people. The psychological moment is the most difficult. When I first looked at the painting, I suddenly saw my father. "

Author: Evgenia Sidelnikova
Comments
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