Reproductions of the young Lucian Freud's letters alongside perceptive context and commentary reveal the foundations of the artist's personality and creative practice
David Dawson is a painter and photographer who was Freud's assistant and regular model for over twenty years. He appears in paintings such as Sunny Morning-Eight Legs, 1997. Dawson is Director of the Lucian Freud Archive. Martin Gayford is art critic for The Spectator. His books include Man with a Blue Scarf (in which he recounts the experience of being painted by Freud), Modernists and Mavericks, Spring Cannot be Cancelled (with David Hockney), A History of Pictures (with David Hockney) and Shaping the World (with Antony Gormley), all published by Thames & Hudson.
'The artist’s riotous lust for life is revealed …The publication of
Lucian Freud’s letters is like the moment in Peter Jackson’s
Beatles documentary when Paul McCartney picks up his bass and
creates Get Back out of thin air. It’s letting daylight in on magic
… part of the charm of this book is the revelation - to me, at
least - of his sense of humour' - Sunday Times
'Lively ... Here Freud’s letters and postcards, in his strangely
childlike writing and often augmented with drawings, shed a very
personal light on his life and loves … Addressed to lovers, family
and friends such as Stephen Spender, Kenneth Clark and Sonia
Orwell, Freud’s correspondence fizzes with joshing and drolleries'
- The Times, Best Art Books of the Year
'A model of intelligent design … The raw spontaneity and energy of
each illustrated page conveys Freud’s moods and preoccupations in a
way that no biographer can match. Altogether, this is as vivid a
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as we shall ever have, and
compelling reading for Freud aficionados and amateur psychologists
alike' - The Spectator
'Handsome and enthralling … LOVE LUCIAN is unique, a sort of
biographical tapestry woven around a set of missives reproduced in
facsimile that are at once skimpy, slapdash, funny and, in many
cases, idiosyncratically but beautifully illustrated works of
pictorial art' - Guardian
'Playful, gossipy and charming – unpublished letters by a young
Lucian Freud show the great artist in a new light' - Daily
Telegraph
'Charming … reveals a new side of [Freud’s] character' - The Art
Newspaper
'Witty and irreverent' - Harper's Bazaar
'Sheds light on the internal voice and ponderings of one of the
greatest painters of the 20th century ... a revelation' - Luxury
London
'Offer[s] the artist's correspondence in facsimile, the better to
appreciate his doodles and drawings ... [A] sumptuous, illustrated
collage of the artist's development' - Vogue Inc
'A lively and entertaining read' - artbookreview.com
'An inviting portrait of the artist as a young man through
facsimiles of his handwritten, often lavishly embellished personal
correspondence ... Richly illustrated' - NPR
'Love Lucian is beautifully presented, and contextualized with wit
and an expert’s discernment. It doesn’t hurt that Freud was one of
the century’s great talkers, rogues, and talents' - Air Mail
'Compelling and subtly captivating … That the letters are
reproduced in full colour adds much to the book’s charm and gives a
great sense of intimacy … Alongside the letters is a sensitively
written account of the progress of Lucian’s contemporary life as
well as a generous selection of superb reproductions of his work,
providing plenty of context … an intimate and affectionate, curated
portrait of a great man in his own words' - Henry Malt, The
Artist
'A sumptuous £65 edition of Freud’s lively, louche, careless early
correspondence, Love Lucian is a life in letters, lovingly
annotated – every letter in facsimile so we can see the drawings' -
Times Literary Supplement
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