Man with a Blue Scarf by Martin Gayford

The titular blue scarfed man is Martin Gayford and this is the account of his sitting for a portrait by the late Lucian Freud, an endeavor that took a series of hours long sittings over a year and half.

What might on the face of it seem like the very definition of tedium is anything but.  Based on the diary Gayford kept over the period it’s in part a recounting of conversations with the artist, both while posing and also socializing after, a biographical study and a meditation on the nature of portraiture.  Amongst other things.  Wide ranging about sums it up.

Not only is Freud entertaining in his observations and opinions but fascinating in the insights he provides about the ways and means of his art practice.  All this from a man who had the reputation of being prickly and not bothered overly much by public opinion.  The conversational ease is helped by Gayford’s personal relation with Freud as well the latter’s obvious respect former’s art criticism. At any rate that’s the way Gayford’s written it, we’ll have to take the mutual admiration on faith.

There is probably some underlying gestalt that drives human creativity, beyond that it’s fairly safe to say every artist’s aim and, tellingly, their practice is different.  As a visual artist I’m always interested in what another artist’s way of doing things, in that it informs me about my own.  So, while the anecdotes and Gayford’s musings are entertaining it’s the sense of being able to observe Freud at work and hear his explanations as to the whys and wherefores of his methods that hooks me in.

At this writing I’m half way through Man with a Blue Scarf and it has, by and large, skated over Freud’s rather problematic relationships with women.  I don’t get the sense that it will be addressed seriously in the second half.

For an interesting perspective on that subject I would recommend Self-Portrait by the artist Celia Paul.

I am tempted by William Feaver’s two volume The Lives of Lucian Freud (second  volume due September 2020) but at 1400 pages in total, maybe not.

I would recommend Man with a Blue Scarf instead for anyone that wants a compact accessible overview of Freud’s life and work.  With just the right number and sort of illustrations.