Nude Man, Back View
Nude Man, Back View © Lucian Freud (1991–92)
Best Interpretation: “‘They won’t mind if I sneak in a small lunch in between drawings…’”-indyfitz
Issue Aug 2007
Realism Expressionism Surrealism
4 Responses to “Nude Man, Back View”
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I think Lucian Freud expressed his insecurities in this painting. The nude man does not have an ideal body—that is why he is turning his back, because he is insecure to show the whole of him. He is hiding himself. So even if people laugh at him, it’s still kind of OK ‘cos his face doesn’t show.
They are awaiting my excavation. Thinking me a someone trapped in a pale mountain, in need of rescue. But I carry myself inside myself, parka-ed away in this coat of my winter, I am my own nesting doll, my own doll cake this nimble plastic doll encased in my frosting dress. This is a stone cave and I am the strong man to carry it. I am large with solitude, heavy in my shadows. The backdrop, the footstool all mimic me in their drapings and creasings, whatever exists inside enrobed in the fabric, comforting as it is smothering, sheltering even as it muffles. I am not the whisper heard in the back of the theatre, I am cinema, every shadow, every fold in the lighting, the lean pyramid of light projecting from the back wall to the vast arctic of screen, the dustmotes that spin and shine along the way.
“They won’t mind if I sneak in a small lunch in between drawings…”
I studied Lucian Freud for my thesis degree in Art History. This painting is a re-interpretation of Ingres’ masterpiece that can be viewed here.
It was common throughout his career to re-visit masterpieces of other painters. I remember his well-known “Interior in Paddington”—this was inspired by the work of Watteau (the subtitle indicated as “After Watteau”). And one of Freud’s last paintings was titled “After Cezanne”.
It’s interesting to compare Freud’s paintings to the original source/inspiration of past masterpieces… by reviewing it, we can better understand his poetry. His elimination of everything is called “beauty”, his concentration to attention of a human being is “Dasein”. Lucian Freud has been an interpreter of art, Existentialism in Britain. If you want to know more… I can translate some chapters of my thesis.