Early Works: Lucian Freud

This catalogue accompanies the first exhibition in Britain to be devoted exclusively to the highly distinctive early work of Lucian Freud. It illustrates around thirty paintings and drawings dating from 1937 to 1945 when the artist was aged between fourteen and twenty-two. Much of Freud's work from this period has a raw, unsettling directness, unaffected by a concern with elegance or finish. Imaginary compositions alternate with portraits and meticulous studies from nature. There are precocious echoes of Surrealism and the neo-Romantic interest in plant and animal forms, but, in his essay, Richard Calvocoressi demonstrates how soon Freud found his own voice.