Two Early Portraits by Freud Acquired for the Nation and Allocated to Abbot Hall, Kendal

Two early portraits by Lucian Freud, Portrait of Lady Scott, 1952-54 and Portrait of Hermione Scott, 1960 have been accepted in lieu of tax and allocated to Lakeland Arts Trust for Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal.

Lucian Freud was one of Britain’s greatest artists of the twentieth century. There are relatively few works by him in UK public collections. These two portraits have previously only been seen once in public in an exhibition in the 1990s in Tel Aviv. Portrait of Lady Scott is a sensitive and finely executed work while Portrait of Hermione is more freely painted with larger brushes, longer strokes and warmer fleshier tones. Viewed together the portraits demonstrate Freud’s stylistic development over this 6-8 year period.

Unusually, the paintings, depicting Lady Scott and her daughter Hermione, were the result of a direct commission from Sir Oliver and Lady Scott. Freud very rarely accepted commissions to paint portraits. The Scott family have a long-held connection to Kendal having settled in the area c.1900 and founded the Provincial Insurance Company of Kendal where Sir Oliver was a Director from 1955 to 1964. Sir Oliver was also a radiobiologist whose research underpinned treatment for cancer. With his family, he gave Glencoyne, the site of Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’, to the National Trust. He and his wife were keen supporters of Abbot Hall which has an impressive collection of modern British Art but no paintings by Freud. In 2016 three works – two drawings by Frank Auerbach (b.1931) and a painting by Michael Andrews (1928-1995) – from the estate of Lucian Freud were allocated to Abbot Hall through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme.