The Female Subject

The art world has been collectively mourning the loss of Lucian Freud since he died in July of last year, still working in his prime and continuing to paint portraiture that was and still is critically viewed as both shocking and subtly beautiful. As a result, the current exhibit of his life’s work at the National Portrait Gallery seems to be a very fitting tribute to the man and his art. Fitting, not for the mundane reasons one might think, but because it gives us a rare chance to see a very large body of his work intentionally set out in one space. We are allowed to make a chronological examination of Lucian Freud’s artistic development, spanning from his days as a student into his much later life. This can draw many opinions from anyone viewing it, but what struck me personally was his greatly varied treatment of the female figure which, in turn, presents the roles occupied by women in his heart and mind.

Looking at his work, I found it easy to separate his lovers from the crowds of women whose naked forms he meticulously painted. I feel that the contour of their form is overly pronounced; every rise and fall of their skins surface documented like the hills and footholds of Royal Academy landscapes, whose artists know the view like the pages of a favourite book. This is well illustrated in “Naked Girl with Egg” (1980-81), the subject of which is his lover Celia Paul with whom he fathered a child. Despite the nudity, I found that the subject to be more elegant and soft than erotic. Her body has been treated with the utmost care, but every crease and shadow in the skin provides us with a view that can only be seen through the fingertips of a lover, particularly the area of skin under her left breast. Though not erotic, her form still exudes a very subtle allusion to sex as she carefully grasps her breast to prevent it falling to her side; she shyly presents it to her artist lover. The egg halves that sit on the table in the bottom left mimic her full bosom and nipples, symbolic of the female sex and its functions in fertility. Here, women are seen as vehicles of Freud’s desires for intimacy both sexually and emotionally.

Freud continues to explore the idea of female fertility and maternal qualities in portraits of his own beloved mother, Lucie née Brasch. “The Painter’s Mother Reading” (1975) shows her as wise and educated, engrossed in a book that lies open in her lap. Her face is enraptured with concentration and weathered by time; every notch of history mirrored in the wrinkles on her face. I feel that Freud relished the chance to paint such an interesting and familiar face, one he knew well and had seen change over the many years since his childhood. She seems so beautiful in her portrayal, full of grace and integrity; everything any son would want from a mother. On some level, it is how he saw the mothers of his own children, but he can never see them as purely as he saw his own.

A lover or mother, an object of sexual lust or of deep emotional attachment; these are not the only ways that Freud viewed his women. I found “Painter and Model” (1986-87) to be in radical contrast to the other works in this exhibition. The painting can be interpreted in many ways, but I personally found it to be the personification of female empowerment. Usually, Freud’s female subjects are seemingly submissive and meek, their naked bodies exposed to the close scrutiny of a man whose fascination lies in her physical form alone. Here, the gender roles have been reversed. A fully clothed woman has assumed Freud’s role as painter, standing over a naked man who reclines naked and exposed on a couch. She is a woman in a dominate position of power, her hair unstyled and face struck with concentration; no attempts have been made to conform to masculine ideas of beauty, so Freud has painted her accordingly. Though always treated with a degree of respect, Freud’s women are never usually intended to be seen in such a masculine way. This painting is, in my mind, an exhilarating personification of feminism and female equality.

Lucian Freud paints women in many roles; a lover, a mother, and even as a man and it is only through this really fitting memorial exhibit that we can truly make this examination. Having so much of Freud’s work in one place is like peeling away the various layers of the artists mind and process. Anyone who is a fan of portraiture and has a penchant for the female form and feminist undertones would do well to visit and hopefully make their own thoughts and opinions on his work, just as I have done.