Debunking the Stigma to Growing Old: Two Plants by Lucian Freud

Written By: Mika Lai

Oil painting, ‘Two Plants’ by Lucian Freud produced 1977-1980, depicts exactly two plants. The work is composed with a hedge that consists of thousands of small leaves-- from top to bottom, they fade from green to yellow-beige. Infront located in the bottom half of the piece is another plant with larger, darker leaves, creating more depth and texture within the piece. This piece indirectly grapples with the themes of exposure and vulnerability, revealing two juxtaposed plants: wilting and growing. With his experience of portraits, it is evident that his unorthodox, anthropocentric approach to this piece-- in a sense-- is even a portrait of plants; Freud even once claimed that the painting portrays “lots of little portraits of leaves”, possessing the same qualities of a human being. 

In his early years, Freud’s style combined detailed observation with an unsettling sense of non-reality that leaned towards surrealism. Later on-- and for the most of his career-- Freud experimented with the technique of ‘impasto’ and expressionism(Seen bottom right: Reflection, 1985). Contrarily, ‘Two Plants’ sways towards realism; however there is still a sense of consistent theme between the piece and his other works. One of the reasons Freud was interested in nude paintings was because it portrayed vulnerability- that there was no need to cover alleged flaws familiar to all beings. In this piece, he suggests a different way to perceive the botanical subjects. Freud does not romanticise the plants in any way; instead the leaves are jagged and raw, each leaf with a slightly different value, some green and some wilting, depicting them in their quiddity. 

‘Two Plants’ presents the concept of naturalism, rejecting the traditional and conventional notions of physical beauty. Freud presents the feeling of growing and fading, of new leaves generated and old leaves dying and withering away. Applying this to human life, suggesting that we should accept the inevitable, reducing the stigma to growing old, because there is nothing reprehensible nor unattractive about it.