Kitty Garman
| Portrait of Kitty | |
|---|---|
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| Artist | Lucian Freud |
| Year | 1948-1949 |
| Type | Painting |
| Medium | Oil on board |
| Subject | Kitty Garman |
| Dimensions | 32 cm × 24 cm (13 in × 9.4 in) |
| Location | The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall, England |
| Accession | 1973.096.GR |
| Website | Portrait of Kitty at The New Art Gallery Walsall |
Portrait of Kitty is a painting by Lucian Freud of Kitty Garman, his wife and the eldest daughter of the sculptor Jacob Epstein and Kathleen Garman. Completed between 1948 and 1949, this oil on board measures 35 by 24 centimetres (13.8 in × 9.4 in).
Freud (1922–2011) was married to Garman (1926–2011) between 1948 and 1952, and the couple had two daughters together, Annie (born 1948) and Annabel (born 1952).
Kitty was the eldest daughter of the sculptor Jacob Epstein and his lover Kathleen Garman. Epstein and Garman were together for over thirty years before they married in 1955, after the death of Epstein's first wife Margaret. Kitty was their only child to survive into old age. Her elder brother Theo (1924–1954) was a talented painter, who suffered from schizophrenia and died suddenly aged only 29, and her younger sister Esther (1929–1954) took her own life in the same year her brother died.
Kitty was brought up by her grandmother in Herefordshire, with regular visits to her mother's house in Chelsea. Epstein's second family's arrangements were rather unconventional and bohemian. He would visit Kitty's mother every evening between 6 and 7 pm, at which time no one else was allowed in the house.
Kitty studied at The Central School of Arts and Crafts under the tuition of Bernard Meninsky and was taught book illustration by John Farleigh. Once she was introduced to Lucian Freud at the Café Royal her own artistic studies took a back seat. Previously Freud had been the lover of Kitty's aunt, Lorna Wishart, Kathleen's sister, who introduced him to her niece.
Their five-year relationship was turbulent, and became increasingly unstable due to Freud's alleged infidelities and womanising, which took its toll on Kitty's health. In 1952 Kitty left Freud and went to live with her parents, Freud having started at an affair with Lady Caroline Blackwood. In 1955 Kitty married the musician and economist Wynne Godley, having another daughter, Eve, with him in 1967.
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