FREE ESSAY ON LUCIEN FREUD

LUCIEN FREUD

All portraits the eyes are really big and open, but are lacking life, giving the
impression that the subject is mentally not there whereas physically, the subject's eyes
are looking straight ahead, a good example can be noted in Freud's work entitled 'Girl
With a White Doggy'. The subject's mouth is also rather big and throughout most of
Freud's works the subject have their mouths closed, adding to the stillness in nature.
Some hint of a sexual connotation is noted as Freud draws in the subject in 'Girl With a
White Doggy' with one bare breast. The subject clearly marks the breast with her hand.
Often one can pay attention to very small obscure details that can lead to the
personalities of his subjects. In 'Girl With a White Doggy', we notice a very small ring
on the woman's finger. This could lead to her being a wife, or a mother perhaps. After
one notices these little details, one can look again at the face and collect more
information from the expressions in the subject's face. In this work's case, we see the
subject may have suffered a loss in her family life, since her still and daydream face
gives us the impression that the character is miserable.
One thing that is very important as well in reference to the eyes, the artist makes it a
point to show the character deliberately looking at the viewer or having the eyes
deliberately hidden. In the work, 'Strange Bedfellows' the subject is covering her eyes
masking them from the viewer. Going back to 'Girl With a White Doggy' we can see clearly
the subject is close to staring the viewer right in the eyes. However, Freud still leaves
the eyes lifeless, so whether or not the subject is staring at the viewer, he or she
knows the subject is somewhere else in his or her mind.
One of Freud's Self-Portraits, shows however, that Freud may not have had the same
approach to painting himself. He did not make an effort to emphasize his eyes, and the
painting was not very fleshy in nature. We can also observe that an exaggerated viewpoint
is being used in the painter's work of himself.