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Lot Essay
‘I feel the tenderness of our relationship and his affection and love’ (Bella Freud)
Intimately observed and meticulously rendered, the present work stands among Lucian Freud’s most exceptional drawings of his daughter Bella. Acquired from the artist by the present owner in 2000, and never before seen in public, it captures her in a moment of peaceful repose, her arm raised languidly above her head. Bella, now a celebrated fashion designer, was one of Freud’s foremost muses, featuring in twelve paintings as well as exquisite drawings and etchings. Here, in her early twenties, she had just finished sitting for the landmark group portrait Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau) (1981-1983). The work dates from a significant period for the artist, during which his painterly ambitions spilled over into his graphic practice. Currently the subject of a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, Freud’s works on paper represent some of most moving and revealing expressions of his relationship with his daughter: the present work has been requested for the show's second leg at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk. ‘I’m more conscious of his paternal attitude towards me’, Bella notes. ‘And so I feel the tenderness of our relationship and his affection and love’ (B. Freud, quoted in ‘Artist in focus: Bella Freud on Lucian Freud’s sketchbooks’, National Portrait Gallery).
Freud had met Bella’s mother, Bernardine Coverley, in Soho in 1959. The two became lovers: the artist immortalised her pregnancy in the extraordinary canvas Pregnant Girl (1960-1961). The infant Bella made her first appearance in his art in Baby on a Green Sofa (1961, Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth), and her sister Esther was born two years later. The couple drifted apart during the girls’ early childhood: Bernardine took her four- and six-year-old daughters upon a whirlwind bohemian escapade around North Africa, later relayed in Esther’s autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (1992). On their return to England, Freud would visit the girls at their home in East Sussex. His appearances in a dark blue Bentley felt ‘revolutionary’, recalls Bella, and ‘his unapologetic manner was so exciting … He felt like an unshakeable ally, and that was how I felt towards him from then on’ (B. Freud, quoted in G. Greig, Breakfast with Lucian: A Portrait of an Artist, London 2013, p. 220).
Over the years the relationship between father and daughter blossomed. When Bella left home for London at the age of sixteen, Freud arranged for her to share a flat belonging to one of his friends. It was during this period that she began sitting for him in earnest. The present work shares much in common with a pair of intimate portrait heads completed between 1980 and 1981, featuring Bella in a dress with flowered collar and cuffs. The passage of light and shadow across her skin is palpable in the artist’s deft application of charcoal; her eyes are infused with life. For Freud, inviting his adult offspring into his studio was a way of getting to know them more deeply after sporadic childhood absence. Bella, too, recalls their time together with immense fondness: ‘However troubled I was I always felt that I left it at the door,’ she notes; ‘he always made a very nice atmosphere and he was very considerate … he would make [everything] in a way that was special’ (B. Freud, quoted in J. Auerbach, Sitting for Freud, BBC 2004).
By the time of the present work, Freud was beginning to take his place on the international stage. He featured in the seminal group exhibition A New Spirit in Painting at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 1981, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1983. His art reached new and ambitious heights, embodied by Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau): a virtuosic tableau in which Bella featured alongside various members of his expanding family. As he pored over his magnum opus, his drawing and painterly practices became ever-more closely entwined. Unlike the crystalline graphic studies of his earlier oeuvre, his works on paper from this period were increasingly painterly, layering pencil and charcoal in a manner that approximated the textures of impasto. It was ultimately in the intimate immediacy of such works that Bella would come to recognise her father’s presence most potently. ‘I have this wonderful feeling of what we had … our bond’, she notes. ‘And how much that’s meant to me, and how it’s made me strong’ (B. Freud, quoted in ‘Artist in focus’, ibid.).
Intimately observed and meticulously rendered, the present work stands among Lucian Freud’s most exceptional drawings of his daughter Bella. Acquired from the artist by the present owner in 2000, and never before seen in public, it captures her in a moment of peaceful repose, her arm raised languidly above her head. Bella, now a celebrated fashion designer, was one of Freud’s foremost muses, featuring in twelve paintings as well as exquisite drawings and etchings. Here, in her early twenties, she had just finished sitting for the landmark group portrait Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau) (1981-1983). The work dates from a significant period for the artist, during which his painterly ambitions spilled over into his graphic practice. Currently the subject of a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, Freud’s works on paper represent some of most moving and revealing expressions of his relationship with his daughter: the present work has been requested for the show's second leg at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk. ‘I’m more conscious of his paternal attitude towards me’, Bella notes. ‘And so I feel the tenderness of our relationship and his affection and love’ (B. Freud, quoted in ‘Artist in focus: Bella Freud on Lucian Freud’s sketchbooks’, National Portrait Gallery).
Freud had met Bella’s mother, Bernardine Coverley, in Soho in 1959. The two became lovers: the artist immortalised her pregnancy in the extraordinary canvas Pregnant Girl (1960-1961). The infant Bella made her first appearance in his art in Baby on a Green Sofa (1961, Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth), and her sister Esther was born two years later. The couple drifted apart during the girls’ early childhood: Bernardine took her four- and six-year-old daughters upon a whirlwind bohemian escapade around North Africa, later relayed in Esther’s autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (1992). On their return to England, Freud would visit the girls at their home in East Sussex. His appearances in a dark blue Bentley felt ‘revolutionary’, recalls Bella, and ‘his unapologetic manner was so exciting … He felt like an unshakeable ally, and that was how I felt towards him from then on’ (B. Freud, quoted in G. Greig, Breakfast with Lucian: A Portrait of an Artist, London 2013, p. 220).
Over the years the relationship between father and daughter blossomed. When Bella left home for London at the age of sixteen, Freud arranged for her to share a flat belonging to one of his friends. It was during this period that she began sitting for him in earnest. The present work shares much in common with a pair of intimate portrait heads completed between 1980 and 1981, featuring Bella in a dress with flowered collar and cuffs. The passage of light and shadow across her skin is palpable in the artist’s deft application of charcoal; her eyes are infused with life. For Freud, inviting his adult offspring into his studio was a way of getting to know them more deeply after sporadic childhood absence. Bella, too, recalls their time together with immense fondness: ‘However troubled I was I always felt that I left it at the door,’ she notes; ‘he always made a very nice atmosphere and he was very considerate … he would make [everything] in a way that was special’ (B. Freud, quoted in J. Auerbach, Sitting for Freud, BBC 2004).
By the time of the present work, Freud was beginning to take his place on the international stage. He featured in the seminal group exhibition A New Spirit in Painting at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 1981, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1983. His art reached new and ambitious heights, embodied by Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau): a virtuosic tableau in which Bella featured alongside various members of his expanding family. As he pored over his magnum opus, his drawing and painterly practices became ever-more closely entwined. Unlike the crystalline graphic studies of his earlier oeuvre, his works on paper from this period were increasingly painterly, layering pencil and charcoal in a manner that approximated the textures of impasto. It was ultimately in the intimate immediacy of such works that Bella would come to recognise her father’s presence most potently. ‘I have this wonderful feeling of what we had … our bond’, she notes. ‘And how much that’s meant to me, and how it’s made me strong’ (B. Freud, quoted in ‘Artist in focus’, ibid.).