Breakfast with Lucian Read online

  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