Can an amanuensis become a master? David Dawson must surely be asking the question. For 20 years he worked for the ferociously singular (some might say appallingly solipsistic) figure who was fêted as our finest living painter, as the studio assistant of Lucian Freud. “Slave” was his nickname. It was jokily given yet, as with so many jokes, it was undercut by truth. The relationship was “hugely demanding”, Dawson says. “In my mind, Lucian always came first. And that was exacting. Sometimes I would think, ‘Just give me a break.’ ”
That break finally came when Freud died, aged 88, in 2011. Dawson, now 63, has, for the past 13 years, been free to follow his own course. So where has that led him? As
