Page 112 - PROTAGONIST 119

Pages 108 and 109: HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2001. With Kate Moss in Bed, 2010.
Photo: David Dawson, Private Collection/Bridgeman Images Photo: David Dawson, Private Collection/Bridgeman Images

And life, pulsating and inimitable, is what still shines through to- Remarkable works that after his death, as stipulated in his will,
day when we observe the photographs taken over the last two dec- have been donated to museums in London.
ades of his existence and career in the home-studio in London, on Freud was a tireless worker. Following afternoon sessions
elegant Kensington Church Street; a building with a nondescript with his models, he would return to the studio for an evening
facade, but one that contained that charm of sincere, Bohemian shift, working until the wee hours in the company of his whip-
traditionalism that Freud transfigured with his own very personal pet Eli, often seen stretched out beside the painted subjects as an
taste, where timeless furnishings coexisted with objects of little integral part of the composition, like the dilapidated armchairs
value and works by the artist he loved best: the above-mentioned and sofas in his ground-floor studio where the refrigerator was
Bacon, his German friend Frank Auerbach, and then marvelous always stocked with bottles of Bollinger and little else: a way to
bronzes by Rodin, important canvases by Constable and Corot. make his guests feel at ease, late at night. With impeccable style.

110 Art Protagonist Protagonist argomento 111