Author:Sue Roe
Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt.
Though they were often ridiculed or ignored by their contemporaries, astonishing sums are paid today for the works of these artists. Their dazzling pictures are familiar - but how well does the world know the Impressionists as people? In a vivid and moving narrative, biographer Sue Roe shows the Impressionists in the studios of Paris, rural lanes of Montmartre and rowdy riverside bars as Paris underwent Baron Haussman's spectacular transformation.
For over twenty years they lived and worked together as a group, struggling to rebuild their lives after the Franco-Prussian war and supporting one another through shocked public reactions to unfamiliar canvasses depicting laundresses, dancers, spring blossom and boating scenes.
This intimate, colourful, superbly researched account takes us into their homes as well as their studios and describes their unconventional, volatile and precarious lives, as well as the stories behind their paintings.
A deft account of their varying shades of character and fortune. Roe's quietly successful book tells of ultimate triumph, but shows its human cost
—— Jane Stevenson , Daily TelegraphRoe is good at bounding from one eye-catching anecdote to another
—— Martin Grayford , Sunday TelegraphThe great strength of Roe's book is the way that it manages to synthesise the wealth of published biographical and scholarly work on half a dozen artists into a coherent narrative of kith and kinship
—— Kathryn Hughes , GuardianHer book is widely researched but has a neat, light touch
—— Independent on SundayAn absorbing capsule history of culture over the past century
—— John Gray , Literary ReviewIts appeal comes from its intimacy.
—— David Robinson , ScotsmanIn this frank memoir, the British journalist Georgie Greig recounts his regular meetings with Freud.
—— ApolloStartlingly frank.
—— Nick Curtis , Evening StandardBoth tender biography and blunt revelation. In that it is the first to reveal the man and the essential symbiosis of heterosexual obsession…with the messy business of painting, it is the most important book yet written on Freud.
—— Brian Sewell , Evening StandardA riveting anecdotal portrait… Everywhere there are fascinating nuggets… A fond, fair-minded, thankfully non-judgmental and pretty full portrait of a person shaped around the people – and most saliently the lovers – who came into his life.
—— Rachel Campbell-Johnston , The TimesGreig has penetrated deep into the labyrinth of Freud’s private life. The result is a gripping page-turner about an endlessly fascinating and extraordinary man.
—— Lynn Barber , Sunday TimesCompelling and fascinating… It is a book fill of clues – generous with routes to an understanding of this massively difficult and hugely gifted individual.
—— William Boyd , Mail on Sunday[It] will be on many an art lover's Christmas list this year.
—— Mary Lussiana , Country & Town HouseFond and faintly disturbing.
—— Nicky Haslam , SpectatorA rattlingly readable effort... Greig does a fine job revealing tales one suspects the artist may have wished to keep private.
—— Alastair Smart , TelegraphAnybody with an ear for a good story, never mind an eye for fine art, will be beguiled.
—— Hephzibah Anderson , Mail on SundayGreig's fascinating, intimate biography of Lucian Freud was a revelation. Every question I had about Freud – from the aesthetic to the intrusively gossipy – was answered with great candour and judiciousness… Wry, dry and completely beguiling.
—— William Boyd , Guardian[Greig’s] perceptive observations and eagle’s eye for detail immediately drew me in.
—— Rebecca Wallersteiner , VantageThe Freud who emerges in this account is a slippery figure, not only for journalists who tried to explain him but also for his intimates.
—— New YorkerMr Greig's is a compelling portrait of a complete amoralist who became a monstre sacré.
—— The EconomistGreig’s portrait glimmers with his eye for the telling detail.
—— Robert Collins , Sunday TimesA mesmerising book, seamlessly crafted, totally absorbing, and impossible to put down.
—— The TabletA very readable and enjoyable book, full of salacious detail of the artist and his fascinating life.
—— Julia Weiner , Jewish ChronicleThis intimate biography of Lucian Freud spares no blushes in its account of one of Britain's greatest painters, tracing his life and work through candid revelations about his views on art, relationships and family.
—— Charlotte Mullins , Art QuarterlyBuilding up brush stroke by brush stroke, Greig has produced a three-dimensional study of equal candour. Part demon, part genius, it is an absorbing portrait of the complexity of a strange human character.
—— Peter Lewis , Daily MailAn unapologetic mixture of intelligent perception and high gossip... It is, overall, more revealing than anything about [Freud] yet written.
—— Frances Spalding , GuardianI am captivated by this fascinating memoir... It's an extraordinary read.
—— Barbara Taylor Bradford , Daily MailCandid and intelligent.
—— Spear'sA gripping, page-turning vision of Lucian Freud that penetrates deep into the artist's private life.
—— Sunday Times OnlineUtterly engrossing and lavishly illustrated
—— Mail on Sunday