Lucian Freud at the National Portrait Gallery.

[Chris Newman]

There is an embarrassment of riches at the National Portrait Gallery. First bit of advice: go there. Second: leave your jackets and coats in the cloakroom (which for this exhibition is in the basement as the usual cloakroom is in use as extra exhibition space for the Freud) and even in this cold weather the accumulated heat is oppressive. There are over 130 Freud portraits on show ranging from the minute (HM Queen Elizabeth and David Hockney) to the gigantic. Each one is a gem. Freud's output ranges from the aristocracy and fellow artists , through friends and relatives to acquaintances found in pubs and clubs. All are painted with a frightening degree of honesty; moles, warts, veins, wrinkles, flabby bits, florid or pallid features. His eye is not malicious, just honest. You can see a change when he ceased sitting to paint in the fifties; his vantage point became higher and the artist towers over his subjects. He paints nobody falsely, especially himself. Whether as a shadow or a dim reflection in a mirror the artist often appears himself; the more one learns about him the more one thinks that this is a natural development of his slow conversational way of dealing with sitters. If he does not appear in person his studio with its paint daubs and piles of rags is there instead.

[rubbernecker]

And for anyone who hasn't seen it, the BBC4 programme on LF which I watched late last night is a must. I presume this is still on iPlayer.

[DracoM]

Absolutely dead right, rubbernecker.

Fascinating, well illustrated, plenty of technical explanations, and good contributions from daughters / sitters / agents etc and the like. Not to be missed.

[Chris Newman]

A delightful film. I have now watched it twice.

[rubbernecker]

and good contributions from daughters / sitters / agents etc and the like

What I did find slightly uncomfortable was their uncritical and unqualified willingness to pose for him in circumstances where, especially where his daughters were concerned, you might almost have expected the involvement of social services or the police. He seems to have had a svengali-like hold on all those he worked with. I also thought the insight into his admiration/jealousy of Francis Bacon absolutely fascinating.

[rubbernecker]

And a couple of further thoughts which Mrs R pointed out, the unwillingness to paint his mother until she was so frail that she couldn't exercise control over him was somewhat creepy. Also (and I can't confirm this having not yet been to the exhibition) the paintings of his women are all very similar, all adopting the splayed, exploitative, naked pose, whereas the latter ones of the male sitter (I forget his name) are much more varied and humane.

[amateur51]

And a couple of further thoughts which Mrs R pointed out, the unwillingness to paint his mother until she was so frail that she couldn't exercise control over him was somewhat creepy. Also (and I can't confirm this having not yet been to the exhibition) the paintings of his women are all very similar, all adopting the splayed, exploitative, naked pose, whereas the latter ones of the male sitter (I forget his name) are much more varied and humane.

I've only seen the first 50 minutes (more to come - hooray for iPlayer!) but the relationship between mother & son did seem rather creepy as you (and/or Mrs R) say - she wrote to his former girlfriends requesting his love letters which she hoarded!

Mind you I'm not sure that living in Berlin in the 30s didn't set everyone's compass a bit off kilter, especially when Freud's uncle was so violently 'disappeared'.

I do wish that the narrator had pronounced 'Ernst' properly - from the shouts coming my living room, my neighbours might have thought I was having a row with a man of that name A minor quibble.

[vinteuil]

I thought the television film was brilliant.

It seems that Lucien Freud is to be added to that list of artists - geniuses if you will - where the fact that their daily moral lives may be doubtful (the chaos he must have caused in so many households!) - does not prevent the creation of works of beauty, importance, and, yes, genius. We know the views of Wagner and Céline were often revolting; they produced masterpieces. Freud's curiously feral and predatory emotional life will not satisfy most moralists: was it, however, a necessary element in enabling him to produce his masterpieces?

[rubbernecker]

There's a 3-4 week waiting list for online slots. We now have to wait 4 weeks before we can go. Thank goodness some forward planning meant we managed to catch the Hockney the day after it opened. In the pantheon I'd probably rate Freud above Hockney, and Bacon above both. I still hesitate to use the word Genius...