With more than 400 works, this is the most comprehensive publication to date on the much-admired painter Lucian Freud, now available in an accessibly priced and reduced format. First published in 2007, this is the singular volume of the great painter’s work. This reformatted definitive volume is now published in a smaller and more accessible size. It includes not only Freud’s paintings but also his sketches, woodcuts, and powerful etchings. While the bulk of his paintings are female nudes, his cityscapes, plant studies, and interiors--executed in his distinctive muted palette and visible brushwork--are all presented. The corpus of great works reveals Freud to be the premier heir today of Rembrandt, Courbet, and Cézanne.; Freud’s importance has long been recognized in England, but his present super-celebrity status dates from a retrospective at the Hirshhorn in Washington, DC, in 1987. William Feaver, painter and for many years art critic for <The Observer<, provides a unique account of Freud’s preoccupations and achievement.;This new edition includes Freud''s last unfinished portrait of David Dawson, the painter who worked with Freud for twenty-five years.

Autorentext

William Feaver

Zusammenfassung
This volume, with more than 400 reproductions, will be the most comprehensive publication to date on Lucian Freud, covering a span of seventy years and including many works not previously reproduced. The result is a corpus of great works that reveal him to be the premier heir today of Rembrandt, Courbet, and C&#233;zanne. The book includes not only Freud&#8217;s paintings but also his sketches, woodcuts, and powerful etchings. While the bulk of his paintings are female nudes, his cityscapes, plant studies, and interiors, executed in his distinctive muted palette and visible brushwork, are all included. Freud, who has lived in London ever since his family left Berlin in 1933 when he was ten, has achieved preeminence through his ruthless perception of the human form. His importance has long been recognized in England, but his present super-celebrity status dates from a retrospective at the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C., in 1987. William Feaver, painter and for many years art critic for The Observer, provides a unique account of Freud&#8217;s preoccupations and achievement. Startling, moving, profoundly entertaining, the book lives up to Freud&#8217;s advice to students when getting them to paint self-portraits: &#8220;To try and make it the most revealing, telling, and believable object. Something really shameless, you know.&#8221;