Kelly Richman

October 2015

Prompt:

Suggest comparative images for Lucian Freud’s Wasteground with Houses, Paddington 1970-1972.

An Unlikely Pairing: The Landscapes of Lucian Freud and Paul Cézanne

Intimate in nature and deeply rooted in psychology, the distinctive portraits of British

painter Lucian Freud have garnered an unequivocally prominent role in the realm of Post-War

and Contemporary Art. Detailed and aesthetically unidealised, these personal portrayals have

come to represent the artist’s oeuvre, leaving his other works – namely, his small collection of

London landscapes – often overlooked. One example of these scenic studies is Wasteground with

Houses, Paddington 1970-1972 (Figure 1). Void of human subjects and set outdoors, the subject

matter of this piece noticeably strays from the artist’s characteristic focus. An unglamourous

scene of urban grit, Wasteground with Houses, Paddington is not a typical landscape painting – yet, it

is not without art historical influence. Though executed in the artist’s characteristically detailed

style, Wasteground with Houses, Paddington bears resemblance to a painting by another prolific –

albeit unlikely – artist: Paul Cézanne’s The House of the Hanged Man, Auvers-sur-Oise, 1873 (Figure 2).

Like his portraits, Freud’s Wasteground with Houses, Paddington is not an idyllic

representation of his subject. Set against a colourless sky, claustrophobic rows of houses topped

with crooked chimneys surround a ‘wasteground’ – a plot of land comprised of gnarled trees and

scattered trash. Formally the site of stables1 and now merely a place to abandon refuse, this

make-shift junkyard deeply fascinated Freud, as it appears again in Waste Ground, Paddington, 1970

(Figure 3), a similar portrayal painted contemporaneously. In addition to the title’s telling syntax,2

the wasteground is painted in great detail – a close inspection of the heap reveals an accumulation

of discarded mattresses, strewn clothing, and broken furniture – and it is evident that Freud paid

great attention to the seemingly insignificant objects. Furthermore, he has placed it in the centre

of the composition; all other aspects of the image frame it, and – with its eclectic mix of textures

and forms – it breaks up the monotony of the nearly identical buildings. Ordinary and sordid, the

subject matter of Wasteground with Houses, Paddington is clearly different from that of painters past;

however, it is not completely novel, as it features certain Cézannian influences.

Known predominantly for his Post-Impressionist landscapes, French artist Paul Cézanne

may not seem a comparable counterpart to British portrait-painter Lucian Freud. However,

identifying a relationship between the two is not entirely unfounded, as Wasteground with Houses,

Paddington would not be Freud’s first homage to Cézanne. In 2000, he completed After Cézanne                                                                                                                1 Michael Gandy, ‘Urban Nature and the Ecological Imaginary’ in Nikolas C. Heynen , Maria Kaika, Erik Swyngedouw , In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2006), 63-74. 2 The title’s syntax suggests the direction of the artist’s focus, as it is tellingly named Wasteground with Houses, Paddington, rather than Houses with Wasteground, Paddington

(Figure 4), an interpretive allusion to Cézanne’s Afternoon in Naples, 1875 (Figure 5). Featuring two

females and one male, Freud’s referential rendition is set in a peculiar interior: two figures lounge

on an arbitrary staircase while a toppled chair rests at their feet and an empty, isolated bookshelf

exists in the distance. Afternoon in Naples also features one male and two female figures within an

interior; the furnishings, however, are more traditional and less offbeat. While compositionally

alike, the two pieces are not identical, and, stylistically, there are striking differences. “Differ[ing]

in scale and painterly treatment and in the emphasis placed on figures and objects,”3 they share

little in common other than their subject matter – three figures placed in an interior – and vague

arrangement. However, as After Cézanne inherently references Afternoon in Naples, Cézanne clearly

influenced and inspired Freud.

Just as After Cézanne inherently alludes to Afternoon in Naples regardless of stylistic difference,

Wasteground with Houses, Paddington echoes The House of the Hanged Man, Auvers-sur-Oise. Given the

precise brushwork and attention to detail, aesthetically, the buildings featured in Freud’s

Wasteground with Houses, Paddington seem to bear little in common with those of Cézanne’s

countryside; the former’s gritty London flats are rigid and uniform, while the latter’s French

cottages are rustic and mismatched. However, it is in the unlikely focal point of Wasteground with

Houses, Paddington where stylistic similarities are evident – particularly, in Freud’s Impressionist

foliage. Myriad strokes of green suggest leaves and overgrown shrubbery, while blended patches

of neutral tones comprise the ground. In both Wasteground with Houses, Paddington and The House of

the Hanged Man, Auvers-sur-Oise, however, the Impressionist planes of colour and organic

brushstrokes are broken up by protruding and starkly linear bare branches (Figure 6) – a feature

present in many other Cézanne landscapes, including Chateau Noir, 1904 (Figure 7) and Landscape

near Aix, the Plain of the Arc River, 1892-1895 (Figure 8).

Furthermore, Wasteground with Houses, Paddington and The House of the Hanged Man, Auvers-

sur-Oise share another like characteristic: unique perspective. In Wasteground with Houses,

Paddington, Freud portrays the landscape from an elevated viewpoint – specifically, from a window

in the artist’s studio.4 At this slightly aerial angle, the viewer is able to view the wasteground, the

painting’s focal point. Furthermore, as rooftops of lower-lying houses are apparent in the

immediate foreground, Freud creates a more authentic point of view and sense of depth. This

approach is also found in much of Cézanne’s work, including The House of the Hanged Man, Auvers-

                                                                                                               3 National Gallery of Australia. Lucian Freud, After Cezanne. http://nga.gov.au/freud/ 4 Cécile Debray, Lucian Freud: The Studio, Hirmer Verlag, 2010

sur-Oise. Like Freud, Cézanne places his hypothetical viewer at a slightly raised vantage point,

modifying the traditional landscape model and altering the expected point-of-view.

Similarly, a final likeness between the two works is evident in their striking compositions.

Cluttered and winding, both Wasteground with Houses, Paddington and The House of the Hanged Man,

Auvers-sur-Oise depict buildings receding toward the horizon. In the foreground of both scenes are

plots of land – the wasteground and a dirt road, respectively. Surrounded by nestled homes, the

foreground of each painting draws the viewer’s eye toward the scene and further enables one to

imagine he or she is in the scene. With these full compositions, both Freud and Cézanne

successfully evoke the simultaneously similar yet contrasting nature of the respective scenery: a

crowded city, and a cosy countryside.

Divergent in artistic style and working decades apart, Lucian Freud and Paul Cézanne

may appear to be an improbable comparison. Though dreamy Impressionism and realistic Post-

War paintings are not typically compared to one another, the former’s influence on the latter is

undeniably evident – not through brushstrokes and colour palette, but, as evident in Wasteground

with Houses, Paddington and The House of the Hanged Man, Auvers-sur-Oise, in subject matter, atypical

perspective, and fascinating composition. Ultimately, while Lucian Freud did not look to

Cézanne for his Impressionist style, he was clearly inspired by his unique approach and

undeniably innovative eye.

Figures:

Figure 1.

Lucian Freud, Wasteground with Houses, Paddington, 1970-1972

Oil on Canvas, 39 ¾ x 66 in. (101 x 167.5 cm.)

Figure 2.

Paul Cézanne, The House of the Hanged Man, Auvers-sur-Oise, 1873

Oil on Canvas, 21.7 × 26 in. (55 × 66 cm.)

Figure 3.

Lucian Freud, Waste Ground, Paddington, 1970

Oil on Canvas, 28 x 28 in . (71.1 x 71.1 cm.)

Figure 4.

Lucian Freud, After Cézanne, 1999-2000

Oil on Canvas, 84 ¼ x 84 5/8 in. (214 x 215 cm.)

Figure 5.

Paul Cézanne, Afternoon in Naples, 1875

Oil on Canvas, 14 9/16 x 17 3/4 in. (37 x 45 cm.)

Figure 6.

Details from The House of the Hanged Man, Auvers-sur-Oise and Wasteground with Houses,

Paddington

Figure 7.

Paul Cézanne, Chateau Noir, 1900-1903

Oil on Canvas, 29 x 38 1/16 in. (73.7 x 96.6 cm.)

Figure 8.

Paul Cézanne, Landscape near Aix, the Plain of the Arc River, 1900-1903

Oil on Canvas, 32 ½ x 26 1/8 in. (82.55 x 66.36 cm.)

Bibliography:

Debray, Cécile, Lucian Freud: The Studio. (Hirmer Verlag, 2010).

Gandy, Michael. ‘Urban Nature and the Ecological Imaginary’ in Nikolas C. Heynen , Maria Kaika, Erik Swyngedouw (ed./eds.). In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2006), 63-74.

National Gallery of Australia. Lucian Freud, After Cezanne. http://nga.gov.au/freud/