Lucian Freud (1922 to 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, who is known as one of England’s leading 20th-century portraitists.
Towards the end of his life, the Lucian Freud Archive was created by accumulating the artist’s personal papers, sketchbooks, and working materials over his lifetime. Spanning his long working life from about 1939 to 2011, the Archive contains over 160 childhood drawings, 47 sketchbooks containing some 600 drawings, and personal letters. In 2015 the Archive was officially acquired by the National Portrait Gallery.
Now a generous selection of images from the Archive is on display at the National Portrait Gallery. These include a wealth of early drawings and sketches, newly acquired etchings of family members which, along with Freud’s etching tools and his paintbox. As we progress through the show, we watch him evolve from his early bug-eyed cartoony style, into something more caustic and realistic, showing his development from standalone drawings into sketches which are obvious preparations for paintings, and then on to a dozen or so finished oil paintings in his mature style. The combination of all these formats is designed to showcase Freud’s skill as a draughtsman across many mediums, in
Created in close collaboration with David Dawson, Director of the Lucian Freud Archive, this is the first exhibition of Freud’s work at the National Portrait Gallery since the major painting retrospective Lucian Freud Portraits, in 2012.
Gallery
The show opens with a wall-sized blown-up image of Freud’s studio.
Wall-sized photo of Freud’s studio towards the end of his life, in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
There’s a selection of schoolboy drawings, for real completists.
Lucian Freud schoolboy drawings in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
Early style – portrait drawings from the 1940s.
Early ‘cartoon’ style in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
‘Girl with Roses’, painted in 1948, is a seminal early oil-on-canvas portrait by Lucian Freud, of his first wife, Kitty Garman. It depicts a tense, pregnant Kitty looking away with a stiff posture, clutching a ‘Peace’ rose while another lies in her lap.
Girl with roses / portrait of his wife (1948) in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
One of several display cases showing drawings from the sketchbooks.
Display case of drawings in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
Portraits from the 1950s – in my opinion, scrappy and inconsistent.
Wall of 1960s portraits in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
Forty years later, 2000s portraits: more consistent, more detailed, darker, closer up. Far more impactful.
Wall of 2000s portraits in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
Transitioning to his mature style i.e. naked figures, in ungainly poses, painted with a kind of brutal honesty. This relatively small work is one of a series of naked portraits of his lover Jacquetta Eliot.
Small naked portrait from 1973-4 in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
Preparatory sketches and final painting, in his mature style. Studying these, it struck me that the drawings have an open quality – the poses are somehow more free and suggestive – whereas the finished oil painting is much more heavy and closed. On reflection maybe part of this is because the painting has a detailed backdrop – the sofa and rumpled white sheet, depicted in great detail – whereas the bodies in the sketches float free in an abstract white space.
Preparatory sketches and final painting in his mature style in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
Letters and comments by friends reveal that as a boy and young man, Freud did lots of drawings of animals. The exhibition includes some of these, including a number of etchings of his whippet, Eli. Here’s one from 2002 set next to a drawing of a toy rabbit from 60 years earlier, in his early style.
Eli (2002) and Rabbit on a chair (1944) in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
The exhibition has a section on group portraits he made as direct homages to works by classical painters, one by Watteau (Large interior W11, 1983), a few etchings inspired by Chardin.
The last few rooms contain prime examples of both his massive full body nude paintings, alongside more ‘discreet’ portrait busts. There are famous portraits of David Hockney (2002) and Queen Elizabeth II (2001), alongside equally vivid portraits of less well-known figures, and a couple of his really vivid self portraits.
Thoughts
In my mind I had a simple mental model of Early style – Naked style – Mature style, but this exhibition is distinguished by a lot more variety and digressions and distractions than that suggests (the school drawings, animals, Old Master homages, among many others) which you will either find enchanting (if you’re a Freud fan) or maybe a little confusing (as I think I did).
A problem with Freud is that, once you’ve seen a number of his naked portraits, especially the ones where the sitters are showing off their big, sore-looking red scrotums, it’s a little hard to expunge the shock of these images from your mind.
Sprawling naked men in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
In among the mix, a distinct and different theme which came over to me was the importance of Family and Friends – a recurrent theme in the sketches, drawings and paintings of his wife, his lovers, his children and grandchildren. (Freud was known for his vast, often chaotic family life, having acknowledged at least 14 children with various women.) These are ‘intimate’ in a different sense, an emotional sense.
Intimate late portraits in ‘Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery (photo by the author)
Related links
- Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting continues at the National Portrait Gallery until 3 May 2026
- Lucian Freud Archive at the National Portrait Gallery
- Lucian Freud Archive
Books & Boots 