Annie Freud

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

(born 1948) is an English poet and artist. She is the eldest child of the artist

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. His early career as a painter was inf ...

, and his first wife

Kitty Garman Kathleen Eleonora "Kitty" Garman, later Kitty Epstein and Kitty Godley (27 August 1926 – 11 January 2011), was a British artist and muse. She was a model for her father Jacob Epstein, her first husband Lucian Freud (including ''Portrait of Kit ...

. Earlier in her career, she was a civil servant. She was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

in 2024.

Biography

Freud's childhood has been described as being

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a ...

and very much within her father's circle. In 1963, aged 14, she posed nude for one of her father's pictures. Lucian Freud's biographer,

Geordie Greig George Carron Greig (born 16 December 1960), known as Geordie Greig, is an English journalist. He has been the editor-in-chief of ''The Independent'' since January 2023, and was the editor of the ''Daily Mail'' from 2018 to 2021 and the ''Mail ...

, has written of this event that her father asked her to "remove her clothes and teenage inhibitions". This was, Grieg said, "a momentous and controversial event in Annie’s life. Many felt it was reprehensible, if not downright immoral. Lucian Freud did not care. The question of whether it would damage his daughter simply did not occur to him". Annie Freud later stated that the sitting had been a "wonderful time" for her and that the resulting work,—''Naked Child Laughing''—was "the picture of me by Dad that I most admire". On another occasion, however, she has been described as finding it an "unsettling experience", and one in which "It was all very well for Dad to say it was all right. No one else felt that it was." She would pose for her father on other occasions—"11 or 12 times"—throughout her childhood. The first works of art she produced were on fabric and clothes, before moving on to board and paper. She was named by the

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) is a British subscription-based book club dedicated to selecting, recommending and publicising new poetry books. Every quarter, it selects two Poetry Book Society Choices and four Poetry Book Society Recommendations. ...

as one of its

Next Generation Poets Next Generation poets (2014) are a list of poets named in 2014 by a panel for the Poetry Book Society, which once every ten years selects 20 poets "expected to dominate the poetry landscape of the coming decade." The accolade highlights emerging poe ...

for 2014 for her collection ''The Mirabelles''; at 66 years old, Freud was the eldest contender.

The Arts Desk ''The Arts Desk'' (theartsdesk.com) is a British arts journalism website containing reviews, interviews, news, and other content related to music, theatre, television, films, and other art forms written by journalists from a variety of tradition ...

has described Freud as being "one of the very few" artists who are also poets, and ''vice versa''. Freud's style of poetry has been described as "dramatic", "shocking" and "outspoken". Her first collection of poetry was published by

Picador A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bull ...

in 2006; two others were published by them subsequently.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Freud, Annie 1948 births Living people English people of Austrian-Jewish descent English women poets English women artists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Annie Freud English people of German-Jewish descent English people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent