Painting:Self-Portrait: Reflection 2002
Oil on Canvas. 26x20" (66x50.8cm).
Private Collection.
Photo: John Riddy © 2007 Lucian Freud
Etching: Self-Portrait: Reflection 1996
Etching Plate: 23 3/8x16 15/16" (59.4x43cm).
Publisher: Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York. Printer: Marc Balakjian at Studio Prints, London. Edition: 46.
Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.
Digital Image Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, Jonathan Muzikar. © 2007 Lucian Freud
Freud is known for the intensity of his gaze, for not beautifying a subject in any way, and if it's himself he's painting, he doesn't make an exception to the rule. In this painted self-portrait the thickness of paint on the facial features are evidence of how he worked and reworked the area. While in this etching, the heaviness of line show how he sought to find his physicality (notice how the clothing is almost untouched).
"Many people are inclined to look at portraits not for the art in them but to see how they resemble people. This seems to me a profound misunderstanding ... I think a great portrait has to do with the way it is approached ... It's to do with the feeling and individuality and the intensity of the regard and the focus on the specific."1
"...you've got to try to paint yourself as another person. With self-portraits 'likeness' becomes a different thing. I have to do what I feel without be an expressionist."2
References:
1. Lucian Freud, quoted in Freud at Work p32-3.
2. Lucian Freud quoted in Lucian Freud by William Feaver (Tate Publishing, London 2002), p43.