Five Things You Have To See At The Freud Museum

M@
By M@
Five Things You Have To See At The Freud Museum

Sigmund Freud spent the final year of his life living at 20 Maresfield Gardens, on the slopes of Hampstead Hill. The psychoanalyst's home, also that of his daughter Anna, is today preserved for posterity and open to the public as a museum.

The space hosts temporary exhibitions, but the museum's permanent displays also contain many riches. We asked the curators to pick out five objects of particular merit. Click the gallery below to see what they chose.

dali_-1.jpg
Dali’s portrait of Freud: Dali sketched Freud in his London home in 1938. He apparently exclaimed ‘Freud’s cranium is a snail! His brain is in the form of a spiral – to be extracted with a needle!’ The portrait now hangs on the landing of the Freud Museum.
baboon_of_thoth.jpg
The Baboon of Thoth: This Egyptian baboon god sits on Freud’s desk. His housekeeper noted that Freud was in the habit of stroking the marble baboon while he was thinking and talking.
mummy_mask_-1.jpg
The Egyptian Mummy masks: Freud collected several coffin masks from Egyptian mummy tombs. The painted faces and glass eyes give them an uncanny appearance fit for Freud’s study.
phallus_-1.jpg
The phallic amulets: Freud was a collector of Greek and Roman antiquities. He amassed a huge collection of decorative phallic objects. Many have loop holes and were designed to hang in doorways, from ceilings, or even on belt loops for good luck and to attract love. Now they are displayed in one of the Freud Museum's glass cabinets.
couch_-1.jpg
The Couch: Freud’s iconic psychoanalytic couch was given to him as a gift of a patient, Madame Benveniste, in 1891. It remained his most famous possession and now takes pride of place in his former study in the Freud Museum.

The Freud Museum is open Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, 10.30 am to 5 pm — Entrance is £14 (with lower rates for concessions, and children).

Address: The Freud Museum 20 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SX

Last Updated 25 October 2023