Portrait Painting: An Anecdote About Ears

You’d think that if you were painting a portrait of someone, the last thing you’d do would be to make their ears stick out. But that’s just what Lucian Freud did with his portrait of in his painting of Martin Gayford, entitled “Man in a Blue Scarf”.

Recounting what happening in Modern Painters magazine, Gayford said: “Quite frequently, while he was painting, Lucian would learn forward to peer at the side of my face. Eventually he explained that what he was doing was looking at my ears.”

“They are quite big as they are, but they do not stick out to the extent that was required for the painting. So Lucian combined three viewpoints – one from straight in front, and two from either side so as to pull out my ears, widen my face, and construct the architecture of forms that he wanted.”