Wikipedia: Lucian Michael Freud
Lucian Michael Freud (/ˈluː.si.ən ˈfrɔɪd/; 8 December 1922–20 July 2011) was a German-born British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impastoed portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the preeminent British artist of his time. His works are noted for their psychological penetration and their often discomforting examination of the relationship between artist and model.
That’s how his Wikipedia entry starts anyway. A direct quote, at least on April 7th, 2016 at 06:02 AM PST. I’m trying to find the year Freud finished Reflection, my favorite, a psychosis-fraught self-portrait; he demands we see him as a muscular patchwork of time’s scales. (His grandpa would have been proud.)
But I’m hung up on two words: chiefly, thickly. “Known for his impastoed portrait and figure paintings,” would have been fine. He was a painter. Of course he was chiefly known for paintings. And thickly, that’s part of the impasto deal.
Do I delete them? I’ve only changed Wikipedia once, when an entry said a somewhat famous musician friend of mine had married a Japanese water colorist. (She had been a blond kindergarten teacher from California. But close, Wikipedia) There must be some logic for the word –– is chiefly a way to highlight lineage, that Lucian Michael may not have achieved such heights were it not for grandpa?
Maybe the chiefly-thickly-adding editor had an agenda. But there are over a thousand changes to the entry. Not sure I care enough to hunt the culprit. Also: The first entry for Lucian Michael Freud dates to April 9th 2003 at 2:09 AM. That’s two years after Wikipedia launched. How did it take so long for such a “preeminent” artist to get an entry? And whoever volunteered that first nod, kept the opening spartan: “Lucian Freud (born 1922) is a British painter and printmaker.” (Note: the present tense.) Seems a little more impartial, like an encyclopedia, not a fan page. But of course the second line says he’s the grandson of Sigmund Freud. And actually, what’s strange, if you go to Sigmund’s entry, at least right now, it doesn’t say anything about Lucian Michael. Ernst Halberstadt is the only grandson mentioned across Sigmund’s sprawling entry. (Ernst was a successful, you guessed it, psychoanalyst.)
Though you do find Lucian when you jump to the Wikipedia entry for Sigmund’s billowing family tree. And here — wow! — we learn Lucian had 14 children –– was chiefly required because Lucian Michael Freud could have been known as a dad? –– and this seems a hard fact to bungle except my eyebrows still stand tall because Wikipedia sources that nugget with The Daily freakin Mail and the July 2011 click-sucker headline “Did Lucian Freud love his art more than his children?” — that crowdsourced popsicle stick holds up this corner of history? — but the article checks out — but still, The Daily Mail — and of course a set-up grandkid like Lucian would philander on the grins of artistry because Oscar Wilde once noted, “The only people a painter should know are people who are bete and beautiful, people who are an artistic pleasure to look at and an intellectual repose to talk to,” but Wilde sorta copped out by issuing that dicey sentiment through a character in one of his short stories. I need to close the Internet.
[Caleb Garling is a writer in San Francisco and the author of The St George’s Angling Club, a novel about the outdoors.]
