Lot Essay
'[One of] the most profound visual statements of the feelings of an artist for his mother since Rembrandt'
(R.F. Johnson, Lucian Freud: Works on Paper, exh. cat., South Bank Centre, London, 1988, p. 19).
Rendered with characteristic care and extraordinary attention to detail, Lucian Freud's 1984 drawing The Painter's Mother forms part of one of the most psychologically penetrating and moving series of portraits of the last century. In the nineteen years following the death of his father in 1971, Lucian Freud consistently drew and painted his mother Lucie. The series of portraits that emerged from these sittings, including a remarkably rich group of 1970s paintings entitled The Painter's Mother, including The Painter's Mother II, 1972 The Painter's Mother Resting III, 1977 and The Painter's Mother Resting I, 1975-76, all of which are a poignant and unflinching depiction of ageing as well as a demonstration of Freud's unsurpassed powers of concentration. Testament to the significance of these sittings to the artist, several of these candid and tender portrayals exist in museum collections including the Tate, and have been shown as part of Freud's major exhibitions, most notably Lucian Freud: Portraits, at the National Portrait Gallery in 2012. Leading to a substantial and defiantly honest body of work, Freud's depictions of the person that was most close to him have been described as 'the most profound visual statements of the feelings of an artist for his mother since Rembrandt' (R.F. Johnson, Lucian Freud: Works on Paper, exh. cat., London, South Bank Centre, 1988, p. 19).
The familiarity of both sitter to subject and of the subject to the artist lends the work an intimacy that is palpable in this drawing. Confidently composed, Freud has concentrated solely on her face, rendering it prominent within the centre of the paper. His deft use of conté crayon and charcoal defines the softness of Lucie's jaw, the furrows in her brow and the fine lines around her unhesitant eyes. With precise marks, he has captured the sense of the weight of her head resting heavily against a soft support, and the unflinching, cool gaze with which she regards her son. The reverse of the work reveals a partially complete sketch of a young boy, possibly the artist's stepson Kai, the first son of Susie Boyt who featured in one of Freud's most celebrated works Large Interior W11 (after Watteau), completed a year before The Painter's Mother.
Drawn in the same year that Freud completed his final painting of his mother, the work demonstrates Freud's unsurpassed ability to give freshness and vigour to familiar subjects. Most mornings, Lucie would be collected by her son and taken for coffee and cakes at a patisserie in Marylebone, before sitting for him for the morning. It was an important turn of events for Freud. Although Lucie sat for some of Freud's earliest drawings, he has said that 'If my father hadn't died I'd never have painted her. I started working from her because she lost interest in me; I couldn't have, if she had been interested.' Lucian was her favourite child, a fact that she made known, and which, being stoically independent, he greatly resented. It was only after the death of Freud's father, Ernst, that Lucian could 'overcome a lifetime of avoiding her. From very early on she treated me, in a way, as an only child. I resented her interest; I felt it was threatening. She was so intuitive. And she liked forgiving me; she forgave me for things I never even did' (L. Freud, quoted in W. Feaver, Lucian Freud, New York 2007, p. 31). Desperately depressed after the death of her husband, Freud found that this stifling maternal attention subsided, and his mother became perhaps his most consistent and preferred model.
(R.F. Johnson, Lucian Freud: Works on Paper, exh. cat., South Bank Centre, London, 1988, p. 19).
Rendered with characteristic care and extraordinary attention to detail, Lucian Freud's 1984 drawing The Painter's Mother forms part of one of the most psychologically penetrating and moving series of portraits of the last century. In the nineteen years following the death of his father in 1971, Lucian Freud consistently drew and painted his mother Lucie. The series of portraits that emerged from these sittings, including a remarkably rich group of 1970s paintings entitled The Painter's Mother, including The Painter's Mother II, 1972 The Painter's Mother Resting III, 1977 and The Painter's Mother Resting I, 1975-76, all of which are a poignant and unflinching depiction of ageing as well as a demonstration of Freud's unsurpassed powers of concentration. Testament to the significance of these sittings to the artist, several of these candid and tender portrayals exist in museum collections including the Tate, and have been shown as part of Freud's major exhibitions, most notably Lucian Freud: Portraits, at the National Portrait Gallery in 2012. Leading to a substantial and defiantly honest body of work, Freud's depictions of the person that was most close to him have been described as 'the most profound visual statements of the feelings of an artist for his mother since Rembrandt' (R.F. Johnson, Lucian Freud: Works on Paper, exh. cat., London, South Bank Centre, 1988, p. 19).
The familiarity of both sitter to subject and of the subject to the artist lends the work an intimacy that is palpable in this drawing. Confidently composed, Freud has concentrated solely on her face, rendering it prominent within the centre of the paper. His deft use of conté crayon and charcoal defines the softness of Lucie's jaw, the furrows in her brow and the fine lines around her unhesitant eyes. With precise marks, he has captured the sense of the weight of her head resting heavily against a soft support, and the unflinching, cool gaze with which she regards her son. The reverse of the work reveals a partially complete sketch of a young boy, possibly the artist's stepson Kai, the first son of Susie Boyt who featured in one of Freud's most celebrated works Large Interior W11 (after Watteau), completed a year before The Painter's Mother.
Drawn in the same year that Freud completed his final painting of his mother, the work demonstrates Freud's unsurpassed ability to give freshness and vigour to familiar subjects. Most mornings, Lucie would be collected by her son and taken for coffee and cakes at a patisserie in Marylebone, before sitting for him for the morning. It was an important turn of events for Freud. Although Lucie sat for some of Freud's earliest drawings, he has said that 'If my father hadn't died I'd never have painted her. I started working from her because she lost interest in me; I couldn't have, if she had been interested.' Lucian was her favourite child, a fact that she made known, and which, being stoically independent, he greatly resented. It was only after the death of Freud's father, Ernst, that Lucian could 'overcome a lifetime of avoiding her. From very early on she treated me, in a way, as an only child. I resented her interest; I felt it was threatening. She was so intuitive. And she liked forgiving me; she forgave me for things I never even did' (L. Freud, quoted in W. Feaver, Lucian Freud, New York 2007, p. 31). Desperately depressed after the death of her husband, Freud found that this stifling maternal attention subsided, and his mother became perhaps his most consistent and preferred model.