The Lucian Freud who appears in the first of two volumes of his new biography The Lives of Lucian Freud is raw and unfiltered. It's practically a memoir as writer William Feaver was able to have countless conversations with Freud over the years on the record. Freud was an extremely talented but extremely complicated artist and man, the two interleaved more often than not. He is legendary for his many women and children, but also for his exquisite portraits which sucked the life out of the sitters as much as their crags and folds. Sitting for Freud--days and weeks on end--was clearly a trial but people did it, seemingly uncomplainingly. I wish I could be transported to the important show of self-portraits now on view at the Royal Academy in London, but it will be coming to MFA Boston in February so there's hope.