The exhibition was very busy but, with so many paintings and so many rooms, it was always possible to find space in front of one picture. Freud’s work was arranged chronologically, but I didn’t follow the path strictly.
Freud’s early work was very detailed with very precise brush strokes, with thin paint quite in contrast to the heavy impasto of his late period. (In his final pictures, the paint was built up in Auerbach-style lumps that disfigured the features.)
I thought I was fairly familiar with Freud’s work, but it’s only when you stand in front of the work that you are able to appreciate the quality of the brush-strokes, the complexity of the colours.
It was also great to see the true colours. I was amazed to discover a picture of Flora where the subject had blue toenails that were entirely missing from reproductions I had seen.
Most of the pieces had simple titles, ‘Woman in white’ ‘Man in blue shirt’. Maybe Freud intended to keep the artwork separate from the person.
As time passed, the size and scale of the pictures increased – and so did the preoccupation with flesh, as exemplified by the pictures of Big Sue…
An exception was the portrait of Hockney, but it’s interesting to note that Freud spent 130 hours on the work (whereas Hockney spent just two hours on a reciprocal portrait of Freud). What obsesses Freud is the colour and variation in colour of flesh. He really gets in – as well as under – the skin of his subject. It isn’t photo-realism, but the brushstrokes have an individual consideration and thoughtfulness that is breath-taking.
In contrast, some of his backgrounds look rushed. The heaps of rags, the basic floorboards.
I began to understand the changes that occurred in Freud’s painting over time. The change in choice of brushes, to a coarse hogshair. The particular white he favoured. The decision not to sit down to paint. Funnily enough, I find I paint a lot more effectively and accurately when standing up.
His last ever painting, ‘Portrait of the Hound’, a large scale piece, is unfinished and made me feel a little sad.
