Still Life with Zimmerlinde, c.1950 Freud, Lucian (1922-2011) Credit: Private Collection. Photo © Christie's Images/© The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved 2022/Bridgeman Images.
Lucian Freud: Plant Portraits will bring together a selection of rarely or never-before-seen paintings and etchings of potted plants and gardens, and will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth (8 December 1922).
Freud was not a gardener but had a close and respectful relationship with plants, from rarely-seen drawings from his childhood in Berlin to his garden in Notting Hill, and the straggly potted plants that followed him from home to home throughout his life. The exhibition also explores why, and when, he chose to paint plants, and not people.
Explore films, articles and more in our Lucian Freud: Plant Portraits online exhibition.
2628789 Small Fern, 1967 (oil on canvas) by Freud, Lucian (1922-2011); 34.3x29.2 cm; Private Collection; © The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved 2022.
Cyclamen, 1964 (oil on canvas) by Freud, Lucian (1922-2011); 45.7x49.2 cm; Private Collection; © The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved 2022.
Small Fern, 1967 (oil on canvas) Freud, Lucian, Private Collection. This image is reproduced with kind permission of His Majesty The King; Cyclamen, 1964 (oil on canvas) Freud, Lucian, Private Collection, both images © The Lucian Freud Archive, Bridgeman Images
In Freud’s plant paintings yellowed leaves, blemishes, and tears are celebrated, distinctive traits demarcating the true identity of individual plants: and unique portraits capturing a history of shared growth entwining artist and plant.
Lucian Freud: Plant Portraits is curated by art historian and author of Lucian Freud Herbarium, Giovanni Aloi.
