Naked Portrait: A Memoir of my Father Lucian Freud

(Paperback)

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'Hypnotic and propulsive' - The Sunday Times 'Thrilling' - The TLS 'Compulsive' - The Observer Nothing had been discussed, I just assumed I would be naked. I got undressed and asked him what he would like me to do. He said it was up to me. In Naked Portrait Rose Boyt explores her complicated relationship with her beloved father, Lucian Freud, drawing on a diary she kept while sitting for him and which she found five years after his death. Enthralled by his genius, she remembered as uncontentious and amusing all the extraordinary stories he told her to keep her entertained in the studio, but the shock of the truth is profound when she looks back. What emerges is her compassion and love not just for herself as a vulnerable young woman but for the man himself, in all his brilliant complexity. 'Packed to the rafters with wisdom and insight, this immersive account of being the child of a genius is, itself, a work of art' - Frances Wilson, The Telegraph 'Books of the Year' 'Beyond the father-daughter dynamic is an evocative tale of coming of age in London in the 1980s, one marked by grief, bad boyfriends, sexual compromises and camaraderie. So much life worth telling, out beyond the shadows of great men' - Hettie Judah, The Times Literary Supplement 'The unexpected miracle of the book is its emotional complexity' - Claire Dederer, The Guardian

Reviews

'One of the compulsive aspects of Boyts book is that, as a reader, you get to listen in on her trying to make honest sense of events that go well beyond what any daughter might be expected to fathom. I ended up reading it in one sitting, well into the early hours of the following day.' -- Tim Adams * TheObserver *
I cant think of an art book with an opening page like it. Lines land like detonations . . . The writing is hypnotic and propulsive . . . Its so powerful, so horrible, the set-up compelling. * The Sunday Times *
The reader is invited into the innermost intimacies of a private life, not just the scandalous details and long-held secrets, but the long waking hours, the temporal chasms between the more gossip-worthy parts of Boyts existence . . . Naked Portrait is a hall of mirrors with the young Boyt at its centre, surveyed from above by her now-66-year-old self. Its events juxtapose, clash and occasionally confuse, painting a portrait of Freud thats even more revealing than his nude depiction of Rose. * The Telegraph *
Beyond the father-daughter dynamic is an evocative tale of coming of age in London in the 1980s, one marked by grief, bad boyfriends, sexual compromises and camaraderie. So much life worth telling, out beyond the shadows of great men -- Hettie Judah * Times Literary Supplement *
Boyts stories of her father and her relations with him are dramatic and often shocking * i *
Rose Boyts account of her father exposes the shocking realities of life with the difficult genius of British art * Financial Times *
This wise and insightful memoir, written by Lucian Freud's daughter, is both a tribute to the genius of the great painter and a painful reckoning with his parenting style * The Telegraph *
An intriguing story, like something from a complex modern folktale a daughter refinding her father -- Colm Tibn, author of Long Island

Author Bio

Rose Boyt was born in London and as a child lived on a cargo ship trading in the Baltic and beyond. With her mother and siblings she emigrated to the Caribbean, but the family was repatriated. She left home when she was fifteen and in the seventies began to take photographs and had a Saturday job at the punk shop Seditionaries. In the eighties she worked as a DJ and on the door of the Caf De Paris, and is the author of three novels.