View Widely 

    I strongly believe that it's important to look - really look - at other artists' work. I do this frequently, and frequently write about my impressions and the artists' techniques. This week I am sharing my writing about Lucien Freud, 1922 - 2011, the grandson of Sigmund Freud. His family escaped the Nazis in the 1930's and settled in England. He is famous for his portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. She reportedly sat for a year for this 9.5 x 6 inch painting.

    So let's take a look:

“Double Portrait,” (1985 -1986), No size given, no media given, photograph from The Lucian Freud Archive / The Bridgeman Art Library

    Recently I finished up a commission of a man and his two pets that I was talked into. I googled dog paintings and this is one of the first paintings that came up. I love Lucien Freud and his monumental paintings. Freud usually painted whippets, because that’s what he owned. Now, the painting: The dog is the center of the painting and the woman has her arm over part of her face so we cannot see it, and the dog is the focus. The size of the dog (I’m trying to figure out relative proportions from several unrelated photographs for my commission) is clear in relation to the woman. While this painting is realistic, it is not photographic. Perhaps it is super realistic in some places like the veins on the woman’s arms and hands. Flesh tones are difficult, and in some ways Freud ignores actual skin tones. Her skin is as much blue as pink, interestingly. The dog is also painted in shades of blue and pink, with ochre and brown thrown in. The dog shows up, in part, because of the contrast between the dark garment of the woman and the dog.

#2

“Girl with a White Dog,” (1950 - 1951), oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

    This painting, 35 years earlier than the previous one, is much different in style than the other two. The dog, the woman, the background, the couch, are all grayed and cool (despite the supposedly warm yellow), pale tones, so that it is almost ghostly, but also has a luminous quality. The woman’s nipple seems to be the focus rather than her face or the dog. The dog is well grounded (one of the things I am having problems with), with its head lying on the woman’s leg. The figures form a backwards L in the negative space, and the woman’s head touches the edge of the canvas, in violation of all rules. But it works. Again, this is very realistic without being photographic.  This is not a painting my wife Ann would allow me to hang, but we couldn’t afford it anyway.

    Analyzing other artists' work informs mine. I encourage you to try it, at least occasionally.