In the early 1970s, Lucian Freud’s most important model was Jacquetta Eliot, then the wife of the Earl of St Germans. She and the painter were conducting a passionate affair. Freud wanted a child with her and encouraged her to stop using contraception. In 1971, Freddy Eliot was duly born. But few of Freud’s affairs lasted very long. All Jacquetta asked for was that he write her a letter for the future, telling the baby that he had been wanted. He did so. And then, William Feaver tells us early in this book, “after their break-up he asked for it back”.
What? One theme in this remarkable biography, based on hundreds of hours of conversation between Feaver and Freud, is the painter’s dawning realisation that, even as he opens himself up, he absolutely doesn’t want his biography to be written after all… at least not until he is safely dead. He angrily warns off other writers and protects his privacy as if living in a barbed wire fortress. Well, one can see why.
Content from our partners
