Freud Portraits

At last managed to see the terribly crowded show at the NPG. The rooms cannot bear the numbers of people, who when I was there were concentrated in the rooms showing the earlier more interesting pictures. There was basically no-one lingering in a room showing the Benefits Supervisor lady and the large male nude, whereas it was impossible to move amongst the exquisite pictures from the 1940’s and 1950’s, when Freud was arguably at his peak. I personally infinitely prefer the early style Freud work, such as the portrait of John Minton. There is a very odd picture of Peter Watson, whose symbolism is hard to unravel. The better Freud picture of Watson, from a little later (1945), was not in the show. It lives in the V and A.