Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud OM CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impastoed portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time. His works are noted for their psychological penetration and their often discomforting examination of the relationship between artist and model...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth8 December 1922
CityBerlin, Germany
Lucian Freud quotes about
miracle looks attention
The paintings live because their creator has been passionately attentive to their theme, and his attention has left something for us to look at. It seems a sort of miracle.
ideas doctors looks
I use the gallery as if it were a doctor. I come for ideas and help - to look at situations within painting, rather than paintings.
giving choices looks
When I look at a body it gives me choice of what to put in a painting, what will suit me and what won't. There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so.
people doe looks
I want paint to work as flesh... my portraits to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of the sitter, being them ... As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does.
people wish looks
I would wish my portraits to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of the sitter, being them.
atmosphere feeling painting perception register wishes
It is through observation and perception of atmosphere that he can register the feeling that he wishes his painting to give out.
accurate copies faithfully hung model next since whether
Since the model he so faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture... it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model.
feels model painted painter preserving thinks took
The picture is all he feels about it, all he thinks worth preserving of it, all he invests it with. If all the qualities which a painter took from the model for his picture were really taken, no person could be painted twice.
entirely whether
Whether it will convince or not, depends entirely on what it is in itself, what is there to be seen.
ask fascinated fellow human interested
You ask why I'm fascinated by the human figure? As a human animal, I am interested in some of my fellow animals: in their minds and bodies.
people spite
I paint people not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.
I never think about my style but just try and make the pictures look believable.
element fact merely revelation strike truth
There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so.
drama people creative
I've always wanted to create drama in my pictures, which is why I paint people. It's people who have brought drama to pictures from the beginning. The simplest human gestures tell stories.