Biography

The gallery regularly handles, acquires and advises on works by Frank Auerbach. For more information or the availability of work, please contact the gallery.

Frank Auerbach (1931-2024) 

Frank Auerbach was one of the greatest painters working in post-war Britain. He moved to Britain from Germany as a schoolboy immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War, and subsequently settled. Though he received his formal training at the Royal College of Art, along with his friend and contemporary Leon Kossoff, he was profoundly influenced by the teaching of David Bomberg. Both Auerbach and Kossoff attended Bomberg's evening classes at the Borough Polytechnic between 1950 and 1954.

 

His first solo exhibitions were held at Helen Lessore's Beaux Arts Gallery, a dynamic if economically unsound enterprise which eventually closed in 1965. Auerbach subsequently went on to exhibit with Marlborough Fine Art, where he was in the company of his close friend Lucian Freud. Like Freud, Auerbach was noted for his exacting technique, a habit of scraping away the paint, the intensive scrutiny of his sitters, and a regular pattern of work. It is often remarked that he did not take holidays, preferring to work all year round, thus imposing on his regular sitters - including Catherine Lampert, William Feaver and his son, Jake - an austere programme of modelling.

 

Works
  • Frank Auerbach, Mornington Crescent, 1969
    Mornington Crescent, 1969
  • Frank Auerbach, Head of Catherine Lampert II, 1978-79
    Head of Catherine Lampert II, 1978-79
  • Frank Auerbach, Head of Laurie Owen I, 1973
    Head of Laurie Owen I, 1973
  • Frank Auerbach, The Tree Opposite, 2008-09
    The Tree Opposite, 2008-09
  • Frank Auerbach, Head of E.O.W., 1972
    Head of E.O.W., 1972
  • Frank Auerbach, Reclining Head of Gerda Boehm, 1980-81
    Reclining Head of Gerda Boehm, 1980-81
  • Frank Auerbach, Study for 'To the Studios', 1982
    Study for 'To the Studios', 1982
  • Frank Auerbach, Reclining Head of Julia, 2020
    Reclining Head of Julia, 2020
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