Art You Can Wear: Bella Freud reimagines Lucian Freud for the National Portrait Gallery Shop with Everything is a Portrait
Opening on 12 February and running until 4 May, Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting is the first UK museum exhibition devoted exclusively to Freud’s works on paper, bringing together drawings that reveal the foundations of his painterly practice — many of them on public view for the first time.
The accompanying capsule collection will launch at the NPG Shop and takes its name from a phrase Freud often used and appears in the exhibition’s opening section: “Everything is a Portrait.” For Freud, any subject — human, animal or botanical — could be approached with the same forensic intensity.
Bella Freud has translated the idea into a graphic text design, rendered in a precise shade of blue, across a tightly edited range of covetable pieces. Available exclusively in-store and online from 12 February, the collection includes a tote bag (£40), T-shirt (£40), sketchbook (£10), zip pouch (£18) and baseball cap (£35), the latter emblazoned with “Wanted 100,000”, a phrase drawn from the Lucian Freud archive.
‘Making these things for the NPG show is a different way of working with my father again. Imagining what he would find interesting and amusing. I would sometimes show him ideas for collections I was making, now I am making something for him.’ - Bella Freud
Beyond the collaboration, the Shop extends the exhibition’s mood through a broader selection of artist-inspired pieces. Prints and homewares feature Daffodils and Celery and Girl with a Fig Leaf, the latter also appearing on a tote (£28). There are bohemian silk scarves by Soho Scarves (£32), overshirts in Freud-adjacent hues — Coriander, Dijon and Charcoal — alongside Scottish-made socks by Uskees, Docklands blazers, Portuguese-made mugs by Musango, and Wallace Sewell silk scarves in exquisite, muted Freud-inspired hues.
Finishing touches include playful gifts — whippet bookmarks, jewellery by Sandra Alexandra — and refined leather goods by Village Leathers, made in the UK, from citrus-yellow cardholders to butter-soft bags and glasses cases (£18). Together, they offer a tactile, wearable way to take Freud’s uncompromising eye home.
