Freud’s desk at Maresfield Gardens, London. Photo Ivan Ward, courtesy The Freud Museum
The works of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud have been minutely examined over the years but a forthcoming exhibition plans to shed new light on a little known aspect of the man himself.
Freud was an avid collector of antiquities and amassed a collection of thousands of pieces, keeping a small, but changing, selection on his desk. He counted collecting, along with smoking, as one of his main addictions, and he essentially worked within a museum of his own creation.
The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds will be exhibiting a number of his collected objects in early 2006, where for the first time visitors will be able to view the objects from the same perspective as Freud.
His bronze, wood and marble sculptures were gathered from Egypt, China, Greece and Rome and have until now been exhibited behind barriers at the Freud Museum in London.
Balsamarium (3rd century BC), bronze, 9.4cm. Photo Nick Bagguley, courtesy The Freud Museum
“The exhibition will give people a chance to sit in front of the works, and view them in a different way,” explained exhibition curator Jon Wood. “You don’t normally get a chance to see them close hand.”
The Freud Museum has recently acquired a replica of the chair in Freud’s office for visitors to sit in and view the objects from.
“We are giving anyone an opportunity to see the works on a level in the way Freud did,” Jon added.
The sculptures were originally transported from Freud’s apartment in Vienna to their current home at 20 Maresfield Gardens in London, now the Freud Museum, when Freud and his family fled after the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938.
His study with its writing desk and collection of antiquities are still kept as they were when he died shortly afterwards in 1939.
Chinese Guardian figure [Smiling Priest] (Ming dynasty), 28cm. Photo Nick Bagguley, courtesy The Freud Museum
“He had about 40 statuettes on his desk and they would change over time…it was an ongoing and changing collection – it was never static,” said Jon.
A selection of some of Freud’s favourites will be loaned to the Henry Moore Institute for the special exhibition and will displayed echoing their positions on his desk.
“We have tried to find objects that were more or less desk bound over 30 years,” he said.
Freud was born in 1856 in Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic, but lived for most of his life in Vienna where he developed his groundbreaking ideas.
He is known for dream analysis and the study of his patient’s childhoods and also believed that many psychological problems were sexual in nature. Although many of Freud’s theories have since been discredited his work has been hugely influential and he is regarded as the father of psychoanalysis.
Max Pollak, Etching of Sigmund Freud at his Desk (1914). Courtesy The Freud Museum
Freud is known to have used his passion for archaeology as a metaphor during psychoanalysis, so can an examination of his collection provide any new insights to his work?
“We don’t buy the line that the objects have to have a direct relationship with his writing,” continued Jon. "They are more than just illustrations."
He added: “However, they are presented there for people who want to ponder this idea…we are throwing the door open for people to make connections they may not have seen before - we want people to come in and make their own minds up.”
The exhibition runs from February 22 2006 to April 23 2006 at the Henry Moore Institute, a centre dedicated to the study of sculpture.
