Lucian Freud: The Painter and His Family review – a ‘delightfully domestic’ show

This is ‘a must’ for anyone intrigued by Freud’s ‘storied life’

Lucian Freud’s son Alex Boyt at the exhibition’s launch
Lucian Freud’s son Alex Boyt at the exhibition’s launch
(Image credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

In 1933, the 11-year-old Lucian Freud and his family fled Nazi Germany for Britain, said Bridget Galton in the Ham & High (London). Five years later, following Hitler’s annexation of Austria, the budding artist’s paternal grandfather Sigmund would follow suit, settling at 20 Maresfield Gardens in Hampstead; he would die there just over a year later. Now a museum, the psychoanalyst’s final home is currently playing host to an “intimate” exhibition exploring his Lucian’s work through the prism of his childhood and relationships with family members. The show brings together a number of portraits of the artist’s mother, children and other relatives, as well as a wealth of archival material including photographs, letters and childhood drawings. In its course, the curators touch on many “lesser-known aspects” of Freud’s life, from his “love of reading” to his “fascination with horses”.

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