Study for ‘To the Studios’ depicts the alleyway leading to Frank Auerbach’s studio in Albert Street, Mornington Crescent. The mass of the neighbouring buildings is scrubbed into the sheet of laid paper with forceful applications of charcoal, which have been reiterated several times in certain areas. The underlying structure of charcoal marks has been overwritten by linear applications of white crayon. These markings have been used both to outline the square wicket gate at the lower centre of the composition, and to evoke clouds in the sky above and areas of reflection over houses on the right-hand side. Different emphases of focus are apparent in the drawing, with certain details picked out with great clarity, such as the drainpipe on the right-hand-side building, while other elements remain relatively obscure, such as the hatched charcoal lines at upper left. The style of draughtsmanship taught by Auerbach’s early tutor, David Bomberg, is apparent, though Auerbach’s approach is contrastingly light-footed, with a variety of improvised markings and an intelligent combination of media.

Since the 1950s, Frank Auerbach’s practice has been to start the day by going out and sketching from life. These drawings set in motion the day’s work and stimulate his pictorial imagination. Throughout his career, Auerbach has typically worked on one or two large cityscape paintings at one time. In the course of making a single work, an endeavour of many months, he continually returns each morning to the motif. To begin with, the drawings he makes are concerned with establishing the elementary facts of a composition: the relationship of the central forms, the number of windows in a building, and so on. Study for ‘To the Studios’ was evidently made at an advanced stage of the process. It establishes a nuanced relationship between the buildings and the circumambient atmosphere, using dark and light graphic materials to suggest the play of daylight over the rooftops and across the wall on the right. The study relates to a series of three oil paintings which Auerbach completed in 1982, each entitled To the Studios.

The Marlborough label on the reverse of this drawing records the work’s stock number as 37450.6.