THE ARTIST Lucian Freud was such a distant father that his children resorted to one of the few means possible of getting to know him ?? posing, sometimes in the nude, as he painted their portrait.

Five of his children have, for the first time, publicly described how the series of sittings with Freud, which can last a year or more, have enabled them to become close to their enigmatic and reclusive father.

??Each time I did a picture with him I swore I??d never do it again, but I then do because it is a way of having a relationship with my dad,?? says his daughter Isobel.

Freud, 81, Britain??s best-known living painter, has a reputation for awkwardness and has famously fallen out with relations such as his brother Sir Clement, the former MP.

Nine of the painter??s offspring are publicly acknowledged ?? by several different women ?? although it has been suggested there may be more.

??I sat for him for the first time when I was 16,?? says Esther Freud, 40, now an established novelist. ??That??s how I got to know him. We??d never lived in the same city before.?? Freud divorced her mother, Bernardine Coverley, when she was very young.

Another daughter, Rose Pearce, whose mother is Suzy Boyt, the artist and long-term mistress of Freud, explains that sitting for him was ??a way of simply being with him. It was a chance to hear my father talking about all sorts of things and for me just to listen??.

The daughters, along with two grandchildren, Frances and Alice Costelloe, are speaking in a documentary film made by Jake Auerbach, son of the artist Frank, and William Feaver, Freud??s biographer and curator of a new exhibition by the artist at the Wallace Collection in central London, which opens next Wednesday.

Several of Freud??s daughters also discuss their thoughts on being painted naked by their father. Over the years, several commentators have raised eyebrows about this aspect of his work, but the daughters explain how they separate the father from the artist. ??I simply took my clothes off and sat on a sofa when he asked,?? said Esther. ??It never occurred to me to be ashamed.??

However, Esther has sat only once in the nude for her father. ??I relate differently to my father in the studio than, say, in the kitchen,?? she says. ??I would not expect to be seen naked by him in the kitchen.??

According to Pearce, people even ask her if the naked posing has a sexual element to it. ??They think there must be an oedipal thing because of Sigmund Freud. But there isn??t. It??s silly to ask such a thing. Look, it??s not as if I??m posing for Playboy or peddling my wares in a red-light district. Being painted is rather like being a still life.??

Bella Freud, Esther??s sister and a top clothes designer, says posing nude ??in fact meant leaving my troubles at the door of the studio??.

The children happily endured the huge demands that Freud usually makes on his sitters. His warts-and-all painting of the Queen two years ago took 18 months of work and innumerable sittings. One critic of the painting said the monarch appeared to be sporting a five o??clock shadow.

One of Pearce??s portraits took nearly three years, although that was in part because she became pregnant twice during that period. ??It was a disruption for him,?? she said. ??It was almost as if he said, ??F*** it?? when I became pregnant as it sort of ruined his picture. But of course he was delighted to become the grandfather to my children.??

There are some compensations: Freud??s daughters, like many other sitters, describe the extraordinary amounts of ??lovely food and drink?? that he gives to his subjects. ??Woodcock to eat and champagne to drink,?? said another sitter, Louise Liddle, who went on to emphasise what she describes as the extraordinary sexual charisma of Freud.

The artist, who has also painted nude portraits of Jerry Hall, the former wife of Sir Mick Jagger, and Kate Moss, the model, usually sings while painting ?? often Cole Porter musicals ?? or recites Shakespeare sonnets and the poems of both Rudyard Kipling and Hilaire Belloc, which he knows by heart. Yet he also sometimes swears like a trooper. One sitter describes the artist uttering obscenities ??as if he has Tourette??s syndrome??.

However, not all of his sitters are sympathetic. One of them, Anne Dunn, looks very emotional in the film when she talks about the man ??she once loved very much??. She describes the end of the sittings as ??like being thrown away??.

The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, who are friends of Freud and owners of a number of his works which hang on the walls of Chatsworth, their Derbyshire seat, are hardly complimentary about his treatment of women.

??It would be a killer to live with him,?? says the duchess, who has sat for him on several occasions. ??He does his portraits of dogs and horses with affection,?? adds the duke. ??I??m not sure he loves women though. In fact, I think he??s a misogynist.??

Pearce disputes this judgment of her father. ??Lucian calls himself a feminist. I really don??t think he??s a misogynist. How can he be one when he loves painting women and he??s also so adored by so many women???

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• An officer and a gentle woman
• Dame Helen Mirren is worthy of the Epidaurus
• Foods that can help to prevent swine flu