Working with Lucian Freud
David Dawson was the studio assistant and close friend of the late great painter Lucian Freud for 20 years, witnessing the creation of some of the most celebrated works of our age as well as being the model for numerous paintings himself. Here, to mark a new exhibition, he recounts how it all began.
David Dawson, Lucian with fox cub, 2005, Š David Dawson
'Graduating from the Painting school of the RCA in 1989, Susie Allen [Curator of the Painting Collection] suggested I meet with James Kirkman who was looking for someone to help him four mornings a week. Meeting him I discovered he was and had been Lucian Freud's dealer for many years. One of the first things I did in this new job was to go with Mr Kirkman to Holland Park to meet Lucian in his studio where he lived. I was so excited about this - I was going to meet a really great painter. We arrived at the house and rang the doorbell for the top flat. The stairs were immediately in front of us and, as we started to climb the six flights, Lucian was waiting for us at the top. He was quite small, slim, very light and quick on his feet, and had fantastically bright sparkling eyes. His good manners and quick wit put me immediately at ease. We went into his kitchen on the left-hand side; the flat was so sympathetic, three windows in the kitchen looked over Holland Park. Lucian said how good the air was next to the park. We didn't stay long as Lucian had a sitter in the studio, but now that Lucian had met me it became the start of 20 years of a brilliant journey for me. After a few visits to the flat Lucian asked me into the studio. Oh boy, I was mesmerised! I was trying to take it all in so quickly, everything. For me it was the most remarkable room I had ever stepped into. The room is not huge but its size felt so human in scale and a large skylight flooded one half of the room with daylight directly above you. On one big wooden easel sat a 29