David Dawson (b.1960) is a British artist, born near Pwllheli, North Wales. Dawson studied Painting at the Royal College of Art. After the RCA he shared a studio with artist Tracey Emin while also working for the art dealer James Kirkman. It was through Kirkman that he met Lucian Freud and became his assistant for nearly twenty years. Freud afforded Dawson unique access to his daily life, and Dawson became his trusted friend, confidante, advisor and most frequent subject and muse.

In 2000, Dawson began photographing the artist in his final decade, giving an intimate look into the painter’s life and work. In addition to photographs of Freud’s painting process, Dawson also captured personal moments of Freud’s life. Dawson’s photographs of Freud were exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in 2004, and twenty-six are now in the NPG collection. The publication Freud at Work, 2006, also contains photographs by David Dawson showing the daily life of the studio and the progress of Freud’s paintings and the painter himself caught in moments of intense concentration. Since Freud’s death, Dawson has focused on his own painting career which he began with a solo show at Marlborough Fine Art, London, in 2013.

In 2006 the V&A displayed new paintings by Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach juxtaposed with masterpieces by John Constable and JMW Turner in the Museum’s Paintings Gallery (Auerbach and Freud at the V&A: New Paintings ). Though Auerbach and Freud had been friends for nearly fifty years, this was their first joint exhibition.

Dawson took these photographs documenting their meeting at the V&A on the morning of Tuesday 25 April, 2006, before an interview with the art critic Richard Cork. One of these photographs was reproduced on the front page of Times 2, Wednesday 3 May 2006, accompanying the interview with Cork, Two old masters. The relationship and interaction between the two artists is captured by Dawson on the V&A staircase leading to the paintings gallery.