The use of exaggerated asymmetry in the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Lucian Freud.
3rd Year Fine Art Dissertation (Painting) Author – David Bain Student Number – K00131401 Email Address –
[email protected]
TUTOR – David Brancaleone
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The use of exaggerated asymmetry in the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Lucian Freud. Introduction This essay is based on the chance observation of the use of exaggerated asymmetry by Lucian Freud in his controversial portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Through Formal, Stylistic, Contextual , Historical , Scientific ,Philosophical and Aesthetic Analyses of the work it is intended to argue that this painting is in many ways atypical of Freud’s work. It is proposed that while the painting is stylistically very similar to his previous work, the nature of the sitter and the artists shared commonalities and growing introspection have produced a remarkably revealing work, largely unappreciated by the audience. A large aspect of this work revolves around Freud’s use of asymmetry in this representation of Queen Elizabeth II and it is therefore worthwhile defining that all of the discussion relates to the left and right side of the subject or sitter and not the viewer. This will avoid a lot of confusion and for the purposes of brevity all references to the Queen and Freud of course relate to Queen Elizabeth II and the painter Lucian Freud respectively.
Formal and Psychological Analyses Fig 1 shows a photograph of the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II painted by Lucian Freud during various sittings in St James Palace, London, from 1999 – 2001, which is currently on view in the “The Queen: Portraits of a Monarch: The Exhibition at Windsor Castle, Friday, 23 November 2012 to Sunday, 09 June 2013. (Trust, 2013)
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Figure 1 Photograph of Queen Elizabeth Portrait by Lucian Freud
The portrait is rather small, measuring 6 inches by 9 inches which demands that the critical viewer steps closer for a meaningful interaction with the painting. Within this small frame the head of the figure is centred from left to right but is below centre from top to bottom. Part of this offset is due to an addition of 3.5cm to the height of the portrait by Freud to accommodate or at least increase the proportion of the crown within the image. (Trust, 2013) This has the psychological effect of implying disequilibrium and perhaps indicating a downward force on the head within the frame of the picture as demonstrated by Arnheim in relation to the off-centre placement of a circle within a rectangular boundary. (Arnheim, 1972, p. 2) Whereas a centred symmetrical composition conveys harmony and stability the crown and the lowered off-centre head form a coherent image of a woman of high office weighed down or at least deeply compromised by her roles and responsibilities. A more detailed examination of the portrait reveals that the vertical y-axis through the middle of the nose is off-centre even though the head itself is largely symmetrical with respect to the
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frame. The red lines indicate the substantial difference between the widths of the left and right sides of the face when viewed in regard to the y-axis.
Figure 2 Portrait of Queen displaying facial y-axis and hemifacial asymmetry
A closer still look reveals that the face is actually constructed from two substantially different faces amalgamated into the one coherent image. Greatly assisted by freely available image software , composite images were created from the two sides of the portrait by cropping, copying, mirroring and pasting actions.
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Figure 3 Composites formed by reflection of 2 distinct hemi-faces
Figure 3 above shows the remarkable outcome of this manipulation is to show two different but related images. Let us now look at each composite image more carefully to try to understand why Freud would have constructed his portrait in this manner. Regarding the Left-Left Composite the first thing to note of course is the significantly wider face extending approximately 50% more than that of the right-side. This is coupled with further deformations of the face in the horizontal direction such as the fleshier redder cheeks, wider more relaxed lips and more rounded bulbous chin to create a distinctly maternal, benign feel to the face. The broader darker patches of skin signifying the temples and the more rounded softer flatter eyebrow shapes reinforce this loving and caring face looking out at the spectator with great humility eyes lowered slightly towards the floor. Looking upwards to the hair we see softer, less managed and less controlled curls implying a more relaxed outlook to her appearance.
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The Right-Right Composite ) is in many ways a stark contrast to the first in the type of characteristics portrayed or implied. The face is most definitely physically narrower already implying greater tension within the subject. The eyes stare out almost aggressively towards the spectator coupled with the well-defined sharply triangular eyebrows to indicate this is a woman who is serious and means business. This mood is reinforced by the sharply pursed lips perhaps suggesting controlled determination coupled with the deeper more sharply defined furrows in the muscles around the mouth. The hair is almost standing to attention and the definition of the pearl ear-rings and in fact almost every feature in the face and crown is that bit sharper. There are many other more subtle differences between the LeftLeft and Right-Right composite portraits but the over-riding message is clear. The portrait by Freud is the deliberate amalgamation of these two disparate views of an elderly woman. Whilst the sitters left-side shows an elderly maternal, kind and caring woman portrait the right-side displays a woman of steely determination ,who perhaps won’t suffer fools gladly and is only interested in getting the job at hand done. Apart from the largely circumstantial evidence posed by the clarity of the composite images above what other factors would lead one to believe that Freud deliberately wished to portray Queen Elizabeth in this manner. The biggest visual clue is the crown perched upon the head of the subject. The crown in the composite images looks correctly proportioned with respect to the rows of pearls with the only obvious distortion being that of the cross. A careful examination indicates that there are only seven or eight pearls from centre to edge in the left hand side of the crown whereas there are ten to eleven pearls on the right hand side. Freud needed to accommodate the extra width of the face on the right hand –side without making it too obvious and the only way of accommodating this would be to increase the size of the pearls or to increase the number. He has chosen the latter method except for the pearl earrings themselves where of course he could not pull the same trick. In this instance the pearl is significantly smaller in the left-hand side as it would look odd with respect to the surrounding face if it were created the same size as that of the right-hand side. This level of 6
manipulation implies a strong awareness of the situation and removes any lingering doubt that the observed asymmetry is accidental or sub-conscious in nature. Stylistic Analysis Freud had always stood by his belief in figurative painting through the second half of the 20th Century while the rest of the art world largely rejected representation of any sort. Though his work was more a mixture of a form of naïve expressionism and surrealism in the early years his thick impasto application using broad strokes of paint to produce raw, unsentimental renderings, became his instantly recognisable style. This latter work can be largely divided into the large somewhat objective full-scale figurative scenes and the more subjective small intimate head or head and shoulder portraits, largely of close friends or family. Throughout his career he has made use of facial asymmetry in many of his works. His 1946 Portrait of a Man shows an exaggerated left hemiface with softer more rounded features relative to the more acute linear definition of the facial contours on the right.
Figure 4 Portrait of a Man Freud,1946
In a later etched portrait of his mother the asymmetry is more marked and poignant. It has a remarkable similarity to the portrait of the Queen stylistically and reveals Freud’s use of asymmetry as a tool to extracting a deeper response to the sitter.
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Figure 5 The Painter's Mother Freud,1982
Numerous examples of Freud’s use of more understated asymmetry exist, some of which are shown in the appendix however it is proposed that the more exaggerated form is an indication of a deeper engagement or perhaps empathy with the sitter. Art History and Science of asymmetry in portraits. Splitting a portrait, or more specifically a face, in two to project two sides of a subject’s character cannot be accredited to Lucian Freud. Bellini famously portrayed Leonardo Loredan, Doge of Venice, in or around 1501 wearing markedly different expressions on each side of the face albeit perhaps in a more subtle way than Freud.
Figure 6 Portrait of Leonardo Loredan Bellini,1501
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Though the face is at a slight angle and the lighting is more severe the right side of the Doge’s face portrays a distinctly harsher, sterner character than that of the softer, more benign left side. (Nicholls, 2002, p. 313) Nicholls states that the aspiration for this portrait may have been to reflect the subject’s role as Magistrate of Venice. Perhaps depicting someone in authority who is seen to be strict but possessing some degree of humanity and understanding whilst making his judgements. A noted preference for the portrayal of the left cheek over the right cheek in portraits was reported by (I.C.McManus, 1973, p. 165) where 68% of female portraits in a sample of 1474 single-person portraits produced in Western Europe from the 16th to the 20th Centuries, displayed the left cheek. Interestingly the corresponding figure for male portraits was only 56% perhaps reflecting the tendency for men to promote a more serious, emotionally detached image to be recorded by the artist. When this methodology was applied to self-portraiture the preference was seen to switch to the right hand side explained by the use of mirrors prior to the existence of any photographic alternative. Nicholls goes on to report findings from (S.J.Segalowitz, 1993) which indicate that even when the mirror-image of paintings are displayed to the viewer the determining factor is the side of the face the artist has shown to display rather than the orientation with respect to the viewer and that artists such as DaVinci, Rembrandt, Goya and Bellini may have reserved the right-side of the face for the purposes of displaying power and self-control. From the study of Semiotics, in a discussion of the spatial effects on pictorial representation, Chandler proposes that the reading and writing of text from left to right, dominant in Western Cultures, is loaded with sequential significance. (Chandler, 2007, p. 110) In other words, what appears in the left hand side of the image dominates that of the right hand side by virtue of appearing first as we scan in the normal direction for reading or taking in information. This temporal sequencing of the processing of information similarly affects the up – down direction with high status and virtue associated with up and low status and death 9
associated with the down direction. Arnheim argues that pictures are therefore read from left to right and that greater importance is attached to imagery in the left side while imagery placed in the right side appears heavier. (Arnheim, 1972, p. 22) To add weight to this directional argument (Nicholls, 2002, p. 321) quotes work from (Sakhuja, 1996) ,whereby a test on perceived happiness of a set of images was read by an Urdu population (right to left reading) in a contrary manner to a Hindu population (left to right reading) with broadly similar cultural histories. With all of these types of analysis one can only say that there is a tendency for the more emotive side of the face to be presented to the artist and that this has been given some scientific backing by virtue of brain scanning and facial muscle studies in response to artificial stimuli. (Nicholls, 2004). However the ‘stylistic analysis’ above strongly suggests that Freud was aware of these effects and perceptions by his obvious use in his work and predominance of the left side to show openness, sensitivity and often simply physically larger. The mirror image of the portrait of the Queen shown below confirms many of the ‘subjective’ claims the authors have made regarding the reading of an image versus its left to right orientation. In this orientation the maternal role is strengthened, there is a marked heaviness to the viewers right and the sense of capturing the Queen’s essence has degraded.
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Figure 7 Mirror Image of Queen Elizabeth Portrait
Contextual Analysis Lucian Freud came to Britain in 1933 fleeing from growing fascism in Germany prior to the outbreak of the second world war in 1939. He was aged 11 when he arrived in England and spent much of his formative years in relative isolation in boarding schools shying away from academic life to pursue his solitary love of art and animals. (Smee, 2007, pp. 9-14) He attended Goldsmiths in 1942 and gained employment as an illustrator in 1943. In the early days his style was more reminiscent of a mixture of German expressionism and European Surrealism painting largely people and animals with thin layers of paint in a somewhat linear or graphic style. As he matured his style loosened up more and more as his layers of paint and working into the canvas increased unto the thick heavily scored, deeply physical impasto layers of recent years. Freud generally produced two distinct types of paintings after he began to enjoy commercial success whilst in his sixties. (Lucian Freud : A Painted Life, 2012) 11
Freud’s single minded nature in relation to his painting, which he undertook almost every day of his life in the confines of his London apartments, overrode any interests in his paternal role in the family unit. It could be said that he only became emotionally engaged with his children when they were old enough to sit for him in his studio which probably more correctly coincided with some internal reflection on his own mortality and the intimacy he had missed out on during their formative years. The paintings in his latter years have a sense of melancholy or regret often being accused of being cold, dark and most definitely unflattering towards any sitter. It is perhaps in this frame of mind that we should examine the portrait of Queen Elizabeth that he painted by his request to celebrate her golden jubilee. (Leitch, 2001) This eventually came to pass after six years of negotiation through his friendship with Sir Robert Fellowes, (Queen’s secretary) whom he had painted the previous year. Whilst there was already a strong tradition for the most acclaimed painters of the period to paint the monarch of the time it was perhaps surprising that the Queen agreed to the portrait with a full knowledge of the nature of his work. Elizabeth became Queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in 1952 at the relatively young age of twenty-six after her father George VI eventually passed away at the age of fifty-six his health having deteriorated through the stress of events during the second world war and subsequent cancer and heart problems. At her coronation Elizabeth, wearing the Diadem Crown, took over fully the responsibilities of a monarch that she had been increasing through the years of her father’s decline. Her first public role was at the age of fourteen when she gave a radio broadcast to the children of London forced to evacuate to the countryside to avoid the perils of German bombing raids on the capital. Whilst the role of the monarch in the 20th Century had been largely reduced to that of a symbol of national unity and pride it is generally acknowledged that the Royal Family fulfilled their role in helping to maintain the spirit of the nation and gave a sense of optimism in that while the whole world had changed through the trauma of the second world war the traditions of a once great sovereign power continued regardless of the onslaught and that life would once 12
again be good for their subjects. In a sense, the imposition of a life under constant public scrutiny could be seen as a life of sacrifice of the personal identity and indeed normal contemporary family life. Children are sent to the best boarding schools and prepared for their role in the public domain while the Queen herself fulfils endless engagements demanded by her station. It is perhaps this sense of loss that is shared by the artist and the sitter that shapes the portrait in that they have both missed out on intimacies that one deems to be more important than anything else as other aspects of life falter by the way-side. Philosophy and aesthetics of asymmetry and the Mask Whilst symmetry is often seen as mathematical in nature and possessing a quality of perfection it is often regarded with disdain aesthetically and philosophically. (I.C.McManus, 2005) The use of symmetrical construction, a strong element of classicism, is often regarded as boring, static, lifeless and in perfect harmony. On the other hand a moderate level of asymmetry may be appreciated for its freedom, playfulness, sense of movement or tension. (Arnheim, 1972, p. 3) In other words as the number of elements of symmetry visible decreases then asymmetry becomes increasingly meaningless descending into pure chaos. It is this balance of symmetrical and asymmetrical elements that must be struck to provide an aesthetically pleasing and intellectually and visually stimulating work of art. In the portrait of the Queen the asymmetry depicts a battle-ground between family and civic duty reinforced by the Mask of the Diadem Crown. The Mask (E.H.Gombrich, 1999, p. 113) is the instantly recognisable sign or icon of who the subject is or what position in society they hold. The importance of the crown and supporting role of the string of pearls is that it makes the audience question only which Queen is being portrayed prior to any analysis of the facial features. Without the Mask the level of distortion or distance from a true representation dictated by the level of asymmetry used would surely be too great for people to recognise the subject. Freud specifically asked for the Diadem Crown to be worn during the painting, most likely to enable him to stray so far from a true representation and through its familiarity to 13
the public at large through its appearance on the Queens head on all postage stamps and many iconic images of her coronation. Conclusion This celebratory portrait was intended for large scale public display which in the past would have more often than not resulted in a ‘flattering’ likeness of the monarch of the day. Though at the age of seventy-five flattery was less of a priority it is also clear that Freud had no such intention when producing this work. Popular British Newspaper headings included “You’re no oil painting, ma’am,”(Daily Mirror), “travesty” ,“They should hang it in the khazi”,(The Sun) while Richard Morrison (The Times Arts Writer) stated “The chin has what can only be described as a six-o’clock shadow, and the neck would not disgrace a prop forward.” However more serious art critics of the time such as Richard Cork (The Times) praised the work as “painful, brave, honest, stoical and above all, clear sighted.” While Adrian Searle, (The Guardian) , struck a chord with “Freud has got beneath the powder, and that itself is no mean feat. Both sitter and painter have seen too much, are easily, stoically bored. They know the shape they ‘re in. This is a painting of experience.” In this dissertation I have argued that Freud painted the portrait of Queen Elizabeth in full knowledge of the effects of asymmetry regarding the simultaneous portrayal of two sides of a conflicted character. The extent of the asymmetry reflects the scale of the conflict or tension within the subject which regarding the Queen is probably most related to the Monarch versus Mother or Public versus Private domains. It is proposed that Freud ‘s deeper connection or empathy with Queen Elizabeth could originate in their shared love of animals, their common history of growing up in war torn England and the great sacrifice of personal and family life that they made for their art and country respectively.
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List of Figures Figure 1 Photograph of Queen Elizabeth Portrait by Lucian Freud ........................................................3 Figure 2 Portrait of Queen displaying facial y-axis and hemifacial asymmetry .....................................4 Figure 3 Composites formed by reflection of 2 distinct hemi-faces .......................................................5 Figure 4 Portrait of a Man Freud,1946 ....................................................................................................7 Figure 5 The Painter's Mother Freud,1982 ..............................................................................................8 Figure 6 Portrait of Leonardo Loredan Bellini,1501 ...............................................................................8 Figure 7 Mirror Image of Queen Elizabeth Portrait ............................................................................. 11
Bibliography Arnheim, R., 1972. Art and Visual Perception. London: Faber and Faber. Chandler, D., 2007. Semiotics : The Basics. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. E.H.Gombrich, 1999. The Image and The Eye. 4th ed. London: Phaidon. Freeland, C., 2010. Portraits and Persons. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. I.C.McManus, 1973. Turning the left cheek. Nature, Volume 243, pp. 271-272. I.C.McManus, 2005. Symmetry and asymmetry in aesthetics and the arts. European Review, 13(2), pp. 157-179. Leitch, L., 2001. Queens Jubilee portrait unveiled. [Online] Available at: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/queens-jubilee-portrait-unveiled-6334963.html [Accessed 23 April 2013]. Lucian Freud : A Painted Life. 2012. [Film] Directed by Randall Wright. United Kingdom: BBC. Lucian Freud : Portraits. 2004. [Film] Directed by Jake Auerbach. United Kingdom: Jake Auerbach Films. Nicholls, M., 2004. Detecting hemifacial asymmetries in emotional expression with threedimensional computerised image analysis. Proceedings of The Royal Society, Volume 271, pp. 663668. Nicholls, M. E., 2000. Asymmetries in Portraits: Insight from Neuropsychology. In: M. K. Mandal, ed. Side Bias : A Neuropsychological Perspective. Hingham,MA,USA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 313 to 329. Nicholls, M. E. R., 2002. Asymmetries in Potraits. [Online] Available at: www.springerlink.com/index/g70026623629201.pdf [Accessed 17 March 2013]. S.J.Segalowitz, J. &., 1993. Left and right in Leonardo's drawing of faces. Empirical Studies of the Arts, Volume 11, pp. 25-32.
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Sakhuja, G., 1996. Reading habits affect asymmetries in facial affect judgements. Brain and Cognition, Volume 32, pp. 162-165. Smee, S., 2007. Lucian Freud. 1st ed. Koln: Taschen. Trust, R. C., 2013. Home > Exhibitions > The Queen: Portraits of a Monarch > The exhibition > Lucian Freud. [Online] Available at: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/the-queen-portraits-of-amonarch/lucian-freud [Accessed 8 March 2013].
Reference List Arnheim, R., 1972. Art and Visual Perception. London: Faber and Faber. Chandler, D., 2007. Semiotics : The Basics. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. E.H.Gombrich, 1999. The Image and The Eye. 4th ed. London: Phaidon. Freeland, C., 2010. Portraits and Persons. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. I.C.McManus, 1973. Turning the left cheek. Nature, Volume 243, pp. 271-272. I.C.McManus, 2005. Symmetry and asymmetry in aesthetics and the arts. European Review, 13(2), pp. 157-179. Leitch, L., 2001. Queens Jubilee portrait unveiled. [Online] Available at: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/queens-jubilee-portrait-unveiled-6334963.html [Accessed 23 April 2013]. Lucian Freud : A Painted Life. 2012. [Film] Directed by Randall Wright. United Kingdom: BBC. Lucian Freud : Portraits. 2004. [Film] Directed by Jake Auerbach. United Kingdom: Jake Auerbach Films. Nicholls, M., 2004. Detecting hemifacial asymmetries in emotional expression with threedimensional computerised image analysis. Proceedings of The Royal Society, Volume 271, pp. 663668. Nicholls, M. E., 2000. Asymmetries in Portraits: Insight from Neuropsychology. In: M. K. Mandal, ed. Side Bias : A Neuropsychological Perspective. Hingham,MA,USA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 313 to 329. Nicholls, M. E. R., 2002. Asymmetries in Potraits. [Online] Available at: www.springerlink.com/index/g70026623629201.pdf [Accessed 17 March 2013]. S.J.Segalowitz, J. &., 1993. Left and right in Leonardo's drawing of faces. Empirical Studies of the Arts, Volume 11, pp. 25-32. Sakhuja, G., 1996. Reading habits affect asymmetries in facial affect judgements. Brain and Cognition, Volume 32, pp. 162-165. 16
Smee, S., 2007. Lucian Freud. 1st ed. Koln: Taschen. Trust, R. C., 2013. Home > Exhibitions > The Queen: Portraits of a Monarch > The exhibition > Lucian Freud. [Online] Available at: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/the-queen-portraits-of-amonarch/lucian-freud [Accessed 8 March 2013].
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APPENDIX – Sample Freud Portraits showing asymmetrical frontal view. Predominant exposure and openness or width of left-side of sitter’s face.
David Hockney , 2002
Annabel , 1972
Alice and Okie, 1999
Frances Costelloe , 2002
Sir Robert Fellowes , 1999
Dark Coat II , 1948
Head of a Big Man , 1975 Frances Wyndham , 1993
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