Breakfast with Lucian
Page 24
Outside the immediate family, only Jane Willoughby and David Dawson were at the service in Highgate Cemetery (although Sister Mary-Joy brought her skewbald mare, Sioux, to the graveside). Lucian’s best friend Frank Auerbach, totally dedicated to painting, did exactly what Lucian would have done: he stayed in his studio. Susanna Chancellor stayed at home. Some of the children gave readings. They were united by their father’s death.
In Trafalgar Square, plans had already been drawn up for the enormous retrospective exhibition of his portraits at the National Portrait Gallery. The world would soon see so much of the intimacy of his life in the public displays. He had been excited by the prospect. It was to be the most successful portrait exhibition ever held in Britain.
Across London, the table at the back of Sally Clarke’s restaurant remained unoccupied that morning, an empty stage through the window. The white cloth was bare, his chair unfilled. Breakfast with Lucian was over.
Lucian’s Family
Notes
CHAPTER ONE
1 Author’s interview with Jacquetta Eliot, 1 May 2012
2 Lucian Freud: Portraits, JA Films/BBC 2004
3 Annie and Annabel by Kitty Garman; Bella and Esther by Bernardine Coverley; Susie, Ali, Rose and Isobel by Suzy Boyt; Paul, Lucy, David and Jane by Katherine McAdam; Frank by Celia Paul; Freddy by Jacquetta Eliot
4 Author’s interview with Anthony d’Offay, January 2012
5 Author’s interview with Jeremy King, November 2011
6 Author’s interview with Victor Chandler, November 2011
7 Man with a Blue Scarf, Martin Gayford, Thames & Hudson (2010), quoted by Nicholas Serota at Lucian Freud’s memorial service at the National Portrait Gallery
8 Mail on Sunday, 20 May 2012
9 Robert Hughes, Guardian, 6 April 2004
CHAPTER TWO
10 Author’s interview with Tim Behrens, 20 January 2013
11 Augustus Egg (1816–63) was best known for his triptych Past and Present
12 Author’s interview with Frank Auerbach, Evening Standard, 10 September 2009
13 Ibid.
14 Francis Wyndham, Tatler, June 2002
CHAPTER THREE
15 Author’s interview with Jacquetta Eliot, May 2012
16 Author’s interview with Lucian Freud, 2009
17 Author’s interview with Sophie de Stempel, November 2011
18 Lucie Freud’s will from the family papers of Matthew Freud
19 Author’s interview with Lucian Freud, 2009
20 ‘Lucian Freud Paintings’, Robert Hughes, Southbank Centre catalogue (1998), p. 9
21 Author’s interview with Ann Freud, October 2011
22 Ibid.
23 Interview with Dora Mosse in 1950s, Leo Baeck Institute, New York, LBI/AR99 Mosse Family
24 Lucian Freud: Painted Life, Randall Wright, BBC/Blakeway Production, 16 February 2012
25 Author’s interview with John Richardson, December 2011
26 Author’s interview with Lucian Freud, 2009
27 Author’s interview with Mark Fisch, December 2011
28 Dartington school report, from Matthew Freud family papers
29 Francis Wyndham, Tatler, June 2002
30 Ernst L. Freud, Architect: The Case of the Modern Bourgeois Home, Volker M. Welter, Berghahn Books (2012), p. 145
31 Ibid., p. 140
32 ‘Lucian Freud Portraits’, Sarah Howgate (curator), Michael Auping and John Richardson (interview by Michael Auping), NPG catalogue (2012), p. 41
33 ‘Lucian Freud Paintings’, Robert Hughes, Southbank Centre catalogue (1998), p. 14
34 Ibid, p. 15
35 Author’s interview Mark Fisch, December 2011
36 Author’s interview with Lucian Freud, 2009
37 William Feaver interview with Lucian Freud, Guardian, 18 May 2002
38 Ibid.
39 Lucian Freud, Bruce Bernard (ed.), Jonathan Cape (1996), p. 11
40 Author’s interview with Neil MacGregor, March 2012
41 Lucian Freud: Painted Life, Randall Wright, BBC/Blakeway Production, 16 February 2012
42 Author’s interview with Annie Freud, August 2011
43 Lucian Freud, Lawrence Gowing, Thames & Hudson (1992), p. 8
CHAPTER FOUR
44 Lucian Freud: Painted Life, Randall Wright, BBC/Blakeway Production, 16 February 2012
45 Author’s interview with Bettina Shaw-Lawrence, December 2011
46 ‘Lucian Freud: In the Silo Tower’, Sandra Boselli, The British Art Journal, Volume XIV no. 3, Summer 2013
47 Stephen Spender, The Authorised Biography, John Sutherland, Penguin (2005), p. 263
48 The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell, Hilary Spurling, Counterpoint Press (2003), p. 57
49 Author’s interview with Matthew Spender, November 2011
50 Diary, 7 February 1940, quoted in Stephen Spender: A Life in Modernism, David Leeming, Henry Holt (1999) p. 133
51 Email from John Sutherland to author, August 2012
52 ‘Lucian Freud: A Scottish Interlude’, Sandra Boselli, The British Art Journal Volume XI no. 3, June 2011
CHAPTER FIVE
53 Laurie Lee: The Well-loved Stranger, Valerie Grove, Viking (1999), p. 83
54 Author’s interview with Lucian Freud, 2009
55 The Rare and the Beautiful: The Lives of the Garmans, Cressida Connolly, Harper Perennial (2010), p. 174
56 Ibid., p. 151
57 Ibid., p. 242
58 Ibid., p. 153
59 Lucian Freud, Lawrence Gowing, Thames & Hudson (1992), p. 8
60 The Rare and the Beautiful: The Lives of the Garmans, Cressida Connolly, Harper Perennial (2010), p. 174
61 Author’s interview with Lucian Freud, 2009
62 Laurie Lee: The Well-loved Stranger, Valerie Grove, Viking (1999), p. 428
63 Ibid., p. 190
64 Author’s interview with Valerie Grove, September 2011
65 Laurie Lee: The Well-loved Stranger, Valerie Grove, Viking (1999), p. 191
66 Ibid., p. 185
67 The Rare and the Beautiful: The Lives of the Garmans, Cressida Connolly, Harper Perennial (2010), p. 181
CHAPTER SIX
68 Guardian, 19 January 2011
69 Obituary, Kitty Godley, Daily Telegraph, 14 February 2011
70 Lucian Freud, William Feaver, Rizzoli (2011), p. 19
71 Author’s interview with Anne Dunn, November 2011
72 Ibid.
73 In Tearing Haste: Letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor, Charlotte Mosley (ed.), John Murray (2008), p. 35
74 Author’s interview with Nicky Haslam, September 2011 & January 2013
75 Lucian Freud, Bruce Bernard (ed.), Jonathan Cape (1996), p. 10
76 Author’s interview with Jacquetta Eliot, 1 May 2012
CHAPTER SEVEN
77 Mr Wu and Mrs Stitch: The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper, 1932–66, Artemis Cooper (ed.), Hodder & Stoughton (1991), p. 123
78 Extract from Don’ts for my darlings by Noël Coward © NC Aventales AG By permission of Alan Brodie Representation Ltd
79 The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, Charlotte Mosley (ed.), Hodder & Stoughton (1996), p. 243
80 Ibid., p. 245
81 Knowing When to Stop, Ned Rorem, Simon and Schuster (1995), p. 521
82 Author’s interview with Evgenia Citkowitz, August 2012
83 Author’s interview with Charlie Lumley, 6 September 2011
84 Author’s interview with Lady Anne Glenconner, 10 October 2011
85 Author’s interview with Vassilakis Takis, in Athens, Greece, May 2012
86 Ibid.
87 New York Review of Books, 16 December 1993
CHAPTER EIGHT
88 Lucian Freud, Encounter, 1954
89 Man with a Blue Scarf, Martin Gayford, Thames & Hudson (2010), p. 54
90 Author’s interview with Neil MacGregor, March 2012
91 Aut
hor’s interview with Victor Chandler, November 2011
92 Freud’s obituary, Catherine Lampert, Guardian, 22 July 2011
93 Author’s interview with Mark Fisch, December 2011
94 Author’s interview with Jacquetta Eliot, January 2011
95 Author’s interview with John Richardson, December 2011
96 Ibid.
97 Lucian Freud: Painted Life, Randall Wright, BBC/Blakeway Production, 16 February 2012
98 Author’s interview with Robert Fellowes, February 2012
99 Author’s interview with Verity Brown, November 2011
100 Ali Boyt email to author, 6 December 2011
101 William Feaver interview with Lucian Freud, Observer, 17 May 1998
102 Author’s interview with Sister Mary-Joy Langdon, November 2011
103 Author’s conversation with Robin Hurlstone, December 2011
CHAPTER NINE
104 Author’s interview with Tim Behrens, in A Caruna, Spain, 20 January 2013
105 Author’s interview with Ffion Morgan, December 2011
106 Author’s interview with Harriet Vyner, February 2012
107 Email to author from Celia Paul, November 2011
108 Author’s interview with Sophie de Stempel, November 2011
109 Sir Nicholas Serota quoting Lucian Freud, memorial address, National Portrait Gallery, 6 February 2012
110 Lucian Freud: Painted Life, Randall Wright, BBC/Blakeway Production, 16 February 2012
111 Author’s interview with Alexi Williams-Wynn, December 2011
CHAPTER TEN
112 Author’s interview with Annie Freud, August 2011
113 William Feaver interview with Lucian Freud, Guardian, 18 May 2002
114 Author’s interview with Annie Freud, August 2011
CHAPTER TWELVE
115 Author’s interview with Damian Aspinall, March 2012
116 Craig Brown, Daily Telegraph, 9 April 2005
117 ‘The Master and The Gallerist’ by Tom Vanderbilt, Wall Street Journal Magazine, 24 March 2011
118 Author’s interview with Anthony d’Offay, November 2011
119 Author’s interview with James Kirkman, December 2011
120 Author’s interview with Lord Rothschild, September 2011
121 Lucian Freud: Painted Life, Randall Wright, BBC/Blakeway Production, 16 February 2012
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
122 Roya Nikkhah interview with Lucy Freud, Daily Telegraph, 20 June 2011
123 Ibid.
124 Jane McAdam Freud, email to author, 31 October 2011
125 Ibid.
126 Esther Freud, email to author, 18 May 2012
127 Bella Freud, email to author, 26 October 2012
128 Esther Freud, email to author, 18 May 2012
129 Rose Boyt, email to author, 1 July 2012
130 Interview with Rose Boyt, London Evening Standard, 29 April 1991
131 Author’s interview with Lady Lucinda Lambton, March 2012
132 Ibid.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
133 The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell, Hilary Spurling, Hamish Hamilton (2002), p. 59
Picture Credits
CHAPTER ONE: BREAKFAST
Freud walking home with David Dawson (2011) © Geordie Greig
David Dawson and Freud in Clarke’s © Geordie Greig
Freud with the Greig children © Geordie Greig
Freud’s iPad doodle of a horse © The Lucian Freud Archive
Eli resting in the artist’s Notting Hill studio © Geordie Greig
Freud aged 87 © Geordie Greig
Freud close up (2010) © Geordie Greig
CHAPTER TWO: STALKING
Naked Man with Rat (1977-78) Lucian Freud © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
Francis Bacon (1952) Lucian Freud © Tate, London 2013
Freud in his drawing room (2009) © Geordie Greig
Auerbach and Freud (2002) © Kevin Davies 2013
CHAPTER THREE: EARLY DAYS
A family portrait, Clement, Stephen and Lucian Freud (c. 1927) © Stephen Freud
The three Freud brothers (c. 1932) © Stephen Freud
The Painter’s Mother Resting I (1975-76) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
CHAPTER FOUR: FIRST LOVES
Lucian holding a hawk by Clifford Coffin for Vogue (December 1948, p. 82) © Condé Nast Publications Ltd
Girl on the Quay (1941) Lucian Freud © Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library
Felicity Hellaby, 1940 © Clare Ellen
Contact sheet by Clifford Coffin for Vogue (December 1948 p. 82) © Condé Nast Publications Ltd
Bettina Shaw-Lawrence, 1939 © Bettina Shaw-Lawrence
CHAPTER FIVE: OBSESSION
Lorna Wishart by Francis Goodman c. 1943 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Woman with a Daffodil (1945) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
Woman with a Tulip (1945) Lucian Freud. The Lucian Freud archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
Freud by John Deakin (1952) for Vogue © Condé Nast Publications Ltd
Lorna Wishart and Freud by Francis Goodman c. 1945 © National Portrait Gallery, London
CHAPTER SIX: LORNA’S LEGACY
Girl with a Kitten (1947) Lucian Freud © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
Girl with a White Dog (1950-51) Lucian Freud. © Tate, London 2013
Anne Dunn and Michael Wishart © Daily Mail
CHAPTER SEVEN: CAROLINE
Girl in Bed (1952) Lucian Freud © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
Freud marries Caroline Blackwood (1953). © Popperfoto/Getty Images Ltd
Freud, Lady Rothermere and Frederick Ashton (c.1950)
Freud with Simon Hornby and Osbert Lancaster’s daughter, Cara (c. 1950)
Freud outside Delamere Terrace (1963). Photograph by Lord Snowdon, © Camerapress
Hotel Bedroom (1954) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
CHAPTER EIGHT: PAINT
Paint-smeared walls in Notting Hill studio. © Geordie Greig
Brushes piled up. © Geordie Greig
Freud working on his final painting (March 2011). © Geordie Greig
Painter and Model (1986-87) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
Large Interior, W9 (1973) Lucian Freud. ©The Lucian Freud Archive/Reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees /The Bridgeman Art Library
At work on Portrait of the Hound (January 2011). © Geordie Greig
CHAPTER NINE: LOVERS
Woman in a Fur Coat (1967-68) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
Double Portrait (1985-86) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
Lying by the Rags (1989-90) Lucian Freud. © Bridgeman Art Library
The Painter Surprised © David Dawson, courtesy of Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert
The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer (2004-05) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
CHAPTER TEN: A DAUGHTER’S TALE
Naked Child Laughing (1963) Lucian Freud. © The Bridgeman Art Library
Bindy Lambton, Lucian Freud and John Wilton (c. 1960)
Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau) (1981-83) Lucian Freud. Private Collection. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
CHAPTER ELEVEN: TWO LATE SITTERS
David Hockney (2002) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
Donegal Man (2006-08) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
CHAPTER TWELVE: DEALERS AND GAMBLING
And the Bridegroom (1993) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: OFFSPRING
Freud standing on his head, with daughter Bella (c. 1985) by Bruce Ber
nard. © Estate of Bruce Bernard
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: FINALE
Freud in his bedroom (May 2011) © Geordie Greig
Portrait of the Hound (2011) Lucian Freud. © The Lucian Freud Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the trust of Lucian Freud and the many people who fell under his spell who also trusted me with their experiences of being with him. Especially, I thank David Dawson, my fellow breakfast companion, whose aim is and was simply to achieve the best for Lucian.
As always, nothing would ever have happened without my agent Ed Victor, who made the embryonic notion of this book become a reality and has been extraordinary in his support and friendship. I am grateful for wise editing from Dan Franklin and David Milner at Jonathan Cape. Also pivotal in keeping the book in focus was Mark Holborn. I am grateful for advice after reading early drafts from James Adams and Kate Chapple.
Crucial encouragers and wise heads along the way have been Justin Byam Shaw and Andrew Solomon. My PA Rosalyn Jeffery was key, bringing calm, clever organisation and resourceful research.
A special thanks to my brother Louis who generously let me and my family stay in his flat in Lucian’s building in Holland Park.
During the last two years as I have typed away at this book, mostly by BlackBerry, I thank my wonderful wife Kathryn and my children, Jasper, Monica and Octavia and their nanny Marie Reyes for giving me the space and time to be able to write before, after and sometimes during breakfast.
I owe Michael Meredith a special debt not only for introducing me to the works of Lucian Freud but also for being the person who most changed my life.
Many others have helped along the way, including some who do not wish to be named. I owe thanks to:
William Acquavella; Diana Aitchison; Clarissa, Countess of Avon; Andrew Barrow; Lucy Baruch; Emily Bearn; Tim Behrens; Antony Beevor; Felicity Bellfield; the late Caroline Blackwood; Sandra Boselli; Ali Boyt; Rose Boyt; Ivor Braka; Craig Brown; Verity Brown; John Byrne; Alexander Chancellor; Susanna Chancellor; Victor Chandler; Perienne Christian; Evgenia Citkowitz; Sally Clarke; Cressida Connolly; Rachel Coulson; Caroline Cuthbert; Anthony d’Offay; Sir Evelyn and Lynn de Rothschild; Sophie de Stempel; the Duke of Devonshire; Anne Dunn; Jacquetta Eliot; Clare Ellen; Mandy Estall; Lord Fellowes, Mark Fisch; John Fitzherbert; Dame Antonia Fraser; Ann Freud; Annie Freud; Bella Freud; Esther Freud; Matthew Freud; Stephen Freud; Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy; A. A. Gill; Lady Glenconner; Lord Gowrie; Lady Greig; Nicky Haslam; David Hockney; Sir Howard Hodgkin; Robin Hurlstone; Raymond Jones; Jay Jopling; David Ker; Jeremy King; James Kirkman; Lady Lucinda Lambton; Sister Mary-Joy Langdon; Evgeny Lebedev; Janey Longman; Ivana Lowell; Billy Lumley; Neil MacGregor; Jane McAdam Freud; Barbara McCullen; Tim Meara; Elizabeth Meyer; Ffyon Morgan; Mary Morgan; Charlotte Mosley; Danny Moynihan; Sandy Nairne; Lord O’Neil; Pilar Ordovas; Andrew Parker Bowles; Janetta Parlade; Celia Paul; Frank Paul; Terence Pepper; Diana Rawston; Freddy Rendall; Sir John Richardson; Grace Riley-Adams; Viscount and Viscountess Rothermere; Lord Rothschild; Hannah Rothschild; Michael Saunders; Sir Nicholas Serota; Bettina Shaw-Lawrence; Julia Shaw-Lawrence; Matthew Spender; Sting and Trudie Styler; James Stourton; Vassilakis Takis; Sue Tilley; Lady Sophie Topley; Harriet Vyner; Rebecca Wallersteiner; Peter Ward; Lord Weidenfeld; Volker Welker; Alex Williams Wynne; Harriet Wilson; Sir Peregrine Worsthorne; Randall Wright