The title of the book perfectly reflects the essence of the arts by Lucian Freud, the ardent portraitist of the Life - people, being it just a human head or a complete portrait of a naturally appearing naked human, as well as animals, or even plants. And the book never disappointed -from two introductions by John Richardson and by Sarah Howgate, to meeting and talking to Lucian as still alive artist while accompanying Michael Auping, to all reproductions of paintings, drawings and etchings, including the simultaneously tragic and admiring last unfinished masterpiece, to excellent collections of the photographs, including ‘Working at Night’ by David Dawson bringing a reader unnoticed to the great artist’s studio.
I knew that I had to point some flaws in the book, but I was so enchanted with reading that didn’t notice any points for criticism, sorry.
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Reviews with images
Disappointingly bad reproductions of a great modern portraitist
I really wanted to like this book but sadly the reproductions of Freud's works lack sharpness and the colors are dull and lifeless. I expected clearer reproductions especially in this age of digital photography -- unfortunately, that did not happen in this book. It appears they used old photos of Freud's works from the archives. There are clearer, high-resolution images of Freud's works that are available online that are infinitely better than many of the works featured here. The book's dust jacket perhaps has the clearest image of the artist's work, then goes downhill from there as soon as you open the book. And even with the book's generous size (12" x 9.5") the publisher somehow still managed to print many of Freud's works smaller than necessary (refer to the photos I posted) with too much white space. And where there are full-page reproductions, the page right next to it is often BLANK (again, refer to photos I posted) -- I counted at least a dozen blank pages in the middle of the book -- so it's not really a 256-page book on Lucian Freud you are getting. And to top it off, one has to keep turning to the end of the book (list of plates) just to get basic info about each of the works (e.g., artwork dimensions, medium, etc.) -- further inconveniencing the reader. Why not just provide this basic info about the artwork right beneath it, especially since there is already so much white space provided for in the layout? Avoid this book if you can. Yale University Press gets a D.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2014
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2014
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2012
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2016
Disappointingly bad reproductions of a great modern portraitist
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2016
I really wanted to like this book but sadly the reproductions of Freud's works lack sharpness and the colors are dull and lifeless. I expected clearer reproductions especially in this age of digital photography -- unfortunately, that did not happen in this book. It appears they used old photos of Freud's works from the archives. There are clearer, high-resolution images of Freud's works that are available online that are infinitely better than many of the works featured here. The book's dust jacket perhaps has the clearest image of the artist's work, then goes downhill from there as soon as you open the book. And even with the book's generous size (12" x 9.5") the publisher somehow still managed to print many of Freud's works smaller than necessary (refer to the photos I posted) with too much white space. And where there are full-page reproductions, the page right next to it is often BLANK (again, refer to photos I posted) -- I counted at least a dozen blank pages in the middle of the book -- so it's not really a 256-page book on Lucian Freud you are getting. And to top it off, one has to keep turning to the end of the book (list of plates) just to get basic info about each of the works (e.g., artwork dimensions, medium, etc.) -- further inconveniencing the reader. Why not just provide this basic info about the artwork right beneath it, especially since there is already so much white space provided for in the layout? Avoid this book if you can. Yale University Press gets a D.
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2016
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2012
Top reviews from other countries
Richard
My reference to the painting style of Lucian Freud
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 23, 2013
