Naked Portrait
29 May 2025Synopsis
‘Hypnotic and propulsive’ - The Sunday Times
‘Thrilling’ - The TLS
‘Compulsive’ - The Observer
Nothing had been discussed, I just assumed I would be naked. I got undressed and asked him what he would like me to do. He said it was up to me.
In Naked Portrait, Rose Boyt explores her complicated relationship with her beloved father, Lucian Freud, drawing on a diary she kept while she was sitting for him and which she found five years after his death. Enthralled by his genius, she had remembered all the extraordinary stories he had told her to keep her entertained in the studio as uncontentious and amusing. As she looks back, though, the shock of the truth is profound, although what emerges is her love and compassion not just for herself as a vulnerable young woman, but for the man himself, who is shown in all his brilliant complexity.
‘Packed to the rafters with wisdom and insight, this immersive account of being the child of a genius is, itself, a work of art’ Frances Wilson, The Telegraph ‘Books of the Year’
‘Beyond the father–daughter dynamic is an evocative tale of coming of age in London in the 1980s, one marked by grief, bad boyfriends, sexual compromises and camaraderie. So much life worth telling, out beyond the shadows of great men’ Hettie Judah, The Times Literary Supplement
‘The unexpected miracle of the book is its emotional complexity’ - Claire Dederer, The Guardian
Details
29 May 2025
9781035024926Reviews
'One of the compulsive aspects of Boyt’s book is that, as a reader, you get to listen in on her trying to make honest sense of events that go well beyond what any daughter might be expected to fathom. I ended up reading it in one sitting, well into the early hours of the following day.'Tim Adams, The Observer
I can’t think of an art book with an opening page like it. Lines land like detonations . . . The writing is hypnotic and propulsive . . . It’s so powerful, so horrible, the set-up compelling.The Sunday Times
The reader is invited into the innermost intimacies of a private life, not just the scandalous details and long-held secrets, but the long waking hours, the temporal chasms between the more gossip-worthy parts of Boyt’s existence . . . Naked Portrait is a hall of mirrors with the young Boyt at its centre, surveyed from above by her now-66-year-old self. Its events juxtapose, clash and occasionally confuse, painting a portrait of Freud that’s even more revealing than his nude depiction of Rose. The Telegraph
Beyond the father-daughter dynamic is an evocative tale of coming of age in London in the 1980s, one marked by grief, bad boyfriends, sexual compromises and camaraderie. So much life worth telling, out beyond the shadows of great menHettie Judah, Times Literary Supplement
