The exhibition catalogue of Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits, which opens at the RA in October 2019. Expert authors – including those who knew and worked with Freud – reveal an approach to the genre that is both unexpected and intriguing.

This 152-page hardback catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits at the Royal Academy of Arts, 27 October 2019 to 26 January 2020.

The first to focus on Freud’s self-portraits, the book provides a fascinating insight into the psyche of this enigmatic yet extremely private artist. Expert authors David Dawson, Joseph Leo Koerner, Jasper Sharp and Sebastian Smee reflect on Freud’s place within the history of self-portraiture and the role self-portraits play within his wider oeuvre.

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In 1964 Lucian Freud set his students at the Norwich College of Art an assignment: to paint naked self-portraits and to make them 'revealing, telling, believable... really shameless'. It was advice that the artist was often to follow himself. Visceral, unflinching and often nude, Freud's self-portraits give us an insight into the development of his style as a painter. The works provide the viewer with a constant reminder of the artist's overwhelming presence, whether he is confronting the viewer directly or only present as a shadow or in a reflection.

Essays by leading authorities - including those who knew him well - explore Freud's life and work, and analyse the importance of self-portraiture in his practice and the intensity that he maintained when studying his own.

Accompanies an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (27 October 2019 to 26 January 2020) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (22 February to 25 May 2020). Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

About the Authors:

David Dawson is a painter and photographer, and Freud's former studio assistant. Joseph Leo Koerner is the Thomas Professor of History of Art and Architecture and Senior Fellow of the Society of Fellows, Harvard University. Jasper Sharp is Adjunct Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee is author of The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals and Breakthroughs in Modern Art (2016).

A sumptuous single-volume edition of Phaidon's acclaimed overview of one of the greatest painters of our time

Larger-than-life British artist Lucian Freud enjoyed a career lasting over seven decades. He worked almost until the day he died, when he left a portrait of friend and studio assistant David Dawson unfinished.

Now available for the first time in one elegantly combined edition, this acclaimed celebration of Freud's work from the 1930s to his death in 2011 includes hundreds of paintings, drawings, sketches, and etchings - even personal photographs and illustrated private letters.

A comprehensive overview of his life and work in one luxurious volume, this book is a gorgeous addition to the shelves of art lovers everywhere. Created in collaboration with the Lucian Freud Archive and David Dawson, Director of the Archive, and edited by Mark Holborn.

About the Authors:

Martin Gayford is a writer and art critic for The Spectator magazine. He sat for a portrait by Freud, an experience recounted in Man with a Blue Scarf (2010).

Painter David Dawson is represented by Marlborough Fine Art, London. Freud's assistant from 1991 until his death, he was a frequent model for his paintings.

Mark Holborn is an editor, designer, and writer who has worked with many leading artists over the last 30 years.

Intimate portraits from one of the most innovative figurative artists of the twentieth century and the master of painted flesh.

Curated by the artist's longtime studio assistant and friend, David Dawson, this important volume features twenty major and rarely seen paintings by Lucian Freud (1922-2011). The book begins with works from 1990 when Freud began painting the performance artist Leigh Bowery: these large-scale portraits of Bowery ushered in a new sense of monumentality in the artist's oeuvre. Inspired by Bowery's impressive physique, Freud began working on a larger scale, which emphasized the physical presence of his subjects. Despite their grand scale, Freud's subjects are still depicted with a sense of intimacy, penetrating honesty, and psychological depth.

The naked body is a subject that has special significance in Freud's oeuvre. Nakedness was a way for Freud to get a more truthful portrait. Freud's probing oils get fresh consideration in this monograph and Dawson provides insights and stories about Freud working on these portraits, giving an intriguing behind-the-scenes look at the life of a contemporary master of representational art.

About the Author

David Dawson is a painter who worked with Lucian Freud for twenty-five years. He is the author of A Life with Lucian Freud. 

Philippe de Montebello is a director of Acquavella Galleries in New York, focusing on special exhibitions and publications. Montebello was the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 1977 to 2008.