Stephen Spender 1940

Editor: Here we have Lucian Freud’s 1940 oil painting, “Stephen Spender.” I'm struck by the raw, almost unsettling honesty of the portrait. What's your take? Curator: Ah, yes, Freud doesn't flatter, does he? He gets under your skin. To me, this portrait screams a kind of wartime anxiety – a rawness of being that the poets of the time like Spender articulated so well. Do you feel that tension in the brushstrokes themselves? Editor: Definitely, especially around the eyes. It’s like Spender is looking right through you. Did Freud typically paint portraits with this level of intensity? Curator: Freud had an unparalleled ability to make paint into flesh and bone, didn't he? Early Freud, like this, definitely. Later on, it morphed and deepened but, here, he is at the sharpest point. Each line seems carved with purpose and doubt, almost a mirror to the uncertainties Spender himself was wrestling with. I think that shows here too, don't you? Editor: I do. The colour palette is also rather muted, emphasizing that tension and darkness, in a way. Curator: Precisely! It's a heavy moment. It’s almost as though they were together figuring out the angst and the hope that lay underneath everything. Editor: I never would have picked up on all those layers. This has been really eye-opening – excuse the pun! Curator: Good. Next time you feel the moment, why not paint it? It can give you access to the language and poetry of experience.