The Lives of Lucian Freud: YOUTH 1922 - 1968 - Hardcover

Feaver, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1408850931 ISBN 13: 9781408850930

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019

Synopsis

SELECTED AS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, SUNDAY TIMES AND SPECTATOR
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019

'This exceptional book is far from standard biography . A compendium of high-grade gossip about everyone from Princess Margaret to the Krays, a tour of the immediate post-war art world, a snapshot of grimy London and a narrative of Freud's career and rackety life and loves . Leaves the ready itchy for volume two' SUNDAY TIMES, ART BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Brilliant . Freud would have approved' DAILY TELEGRAPH

'Sparkling' SUNDAY TIMES

'Superlative . packed with stories' GUARDIAN

'Brilliant and compendious ... It does justice to Lucian' FRANK AUERBACH

'A tremendous read. Anyone interested in British art needs it' ANDREW MARR, NEW STATESMAN

Though ferociously private, Lucian Freud spoke every week for decades to his close confidante and collaborator William Feaver - about painting and the art world, but also about his life and loves. The result is this a unique, electrifying biography, shot through with Freud's own words.

In Youth, the first of two volumes, Feaver conjures Freud's early childhood: Sigmund Freud's grandson, born into a middle-class Jewish family in Weimar Berlin, escaping Nazi Germany in 1934 before being dropped into successive English public schools. Following Freud through art school, his time in the Navy during the war, his post-war adventures in Paris and Greece, and his return to Soho - consorting with duchesses and violent criminals, out on the town with Greta Garbo and Princess Margaret - Feaver traces a brilliant, difficult young man's coming of age.

An account of a century told through one of its most important artists, The Lives of Lucian Freud is a landmark in the story its subject and in the art of biography itself.

About this title

Review:

William Feaver has done a brilliant job (LYNN BARBER Daily Telegraph)

This exceptional book is far from standard biography . A compendium of high-grade gossip about everyone from Princess Margaret to the Krays, a tour of the immediate post-war art world, a snapshot of grimy London and a narrative of Freud's career and rackety life and loves . Leaves the ready itchy for volume two (Sunday Times, Art Book of the Year)

Here's a story to keep you stuck in that fireside seat . Follow the adrenaline-fuelled course of the first half of his fabulously unconventional, unscrupulously promiscuous, relentlessly ambitious and often fantastically scurrilous life as he swirls about in a milieu of grand society and riveting gossip. The second half of this biography is expected soon, so that's next Christmas sorted (The Times, Picks of the Year)

An exceptional level of fact. a robust and intricate evocation of the man at work (Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year)

The "reptile Freud" is laid bare in a biography that reads like fiction as it charts the painter's wild, dangerous youth (The Times, Books of the Year)

A superb and engrossing book (COLM TOIBIN New Statesman, Books of the Year)

This is a tremendous read. Anyone interested in British art needs it . An extraordinary book (ANDREW MARR New Statesman)

The amoral antics of the painter, as reckless in life as he was fastidious in the studio, mesmerise in this lively account (Financial Times, Books of the Year)

Superb, sparklingly intelligent (Daily Telegraph)

As gripping as any novel, illuminating both about Freud's work and about his fairly startling personal life (INDIA KNIGHT Sunday Times)

Book Description:

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019
SELECTED AS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, SPECTATOR

The story of an epic life, and the story of century told through one of its most important artists, The Life of Lucian Freud is a landmark not simply in the story of its subject but in the art of biography itself.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1408850931
• ISBN 13: 9781408850930
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 704