Frank Auerbach Read online

  p. 152 Interior Vincent Terrace, 1982–84. Oil on board, 121.6 × 136.5 (47⅞ × 53¾). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 153 The studio with Interior Vincent Terrace (1982–84) in progress, 1984. © Peter Wood

  p. 155 Paul Cézanne, The Card Players (Les Joueurs de Cartes), 1890–92. Oil on canvas, 135.3 × 181.9 (53¼ × 71⅝). The Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA

  p. 156 Tree at Tretire, 1975. Chalk and charcoal on paper, 77.5 × 72.4 (30½ × 28½). Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 160 Page from letter to Miss Beston with ideas for Venice Biennale exhibition, 1984. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 161 Head of Jacob, 1984–85. Charcoal and chalk on paper, 86.4 × 70.2 (34 × 27⅝). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 165 Frank in the studio, c. 1983. Photo Bruce Bernard. © Estate of Bruce Bernard

  p. 166 Mornington Place – Morning, 1972. Oil on board, 101.6 × 127 (40 × 50). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 173 Camden Theatre in the Rain, 1977. Oil on board, 121.9 × 137.2 (48 × 54). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 174 Primrose Hill, 1979–80. Oil on board, 147.3 × 121.9 (58 × 48). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 175 The Studios – Spring Morning, 1980–81. Oil on board, 121.9 × 76.2 (48 × 30). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 177a Tree on Primrose Hill, 1987. Oil on canvas, 71.1 × 81.3 (28 × 32). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 177b Drawings for Tree on Primrose Hill and From the Studios, with sketch after Titian, 1987. Photo Chris Steele-Perkins. © Chris Steele-Perkins/Magnum Photos

  p. 179 Mornington Crescent – Early Morning, 1992–93. Oil on canvas, 122.5 × 147.9 (48¼ × 58¼). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 180 Tower Blocks, Hampstead Road, 2007. Oil on board, 50.8 × 45.6 (20 × 18). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 183 The Pillar Box, 2010–11. Oil on board, 55.9 × 55.9 (22 × 22). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 186 Figure on Bed, 1968. Oil on canvas, 40.6 × 40.6 (16 × 16). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 187a Head of J.Y.M. – Profile II, 1987. Oil on canvas, 51.1 × 55.9 (20⅛ × 22). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 187b Polaroid photograph of J.Y.M. in pose, c. 1987. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 188 Julia, 1988–89. Acrylic on board, 81.3 × 81.3 (32 × 32). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 190 Head of Michael Podro, 1981. Oil on board, 33 × 27.9 (13 × 11). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 191 Lucian Freud, 1980–81. Etching, 15.2 × 14 (6 × 5½). National Portrait Gallery, London, purchased 1981. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 193 Head of Catherine Lampert, 1986. Oil on canvas, 51.4 × 47 (20¼ × 18½). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 196 Head of David Landau, 1995–96. Graphite, white crayon, acrylic and Indian ink on paper, 76.2 × 57.5 (30 × 22⅝). The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Anonymous gift through British Friends of the Art Museums of Israel, in memory of Lily Sieff, B12.0254. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 197 Studio interior, May 1985. Photo Prudence Cuming Associates. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 198 Ruth Bromberg Seated, 2002–03. Oil on board, 61 × 56.2 (24 × 22⅛). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 201 Self-Portrait II, 2013. Graphite and chalk on paper, 77.5 × 57.5 (30⅝ × 22⅝). Marlborough Fine Art. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 202 Reclining Head of Julia II, 1996. Acrylic on board, 50.8 × 63.5 (20 × 25). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 203 Head of Julia II, 1999. Acrylic on board, 30.5 × 30.5 (12 × 12). Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark. Acquired with support from The New Carlsberg Foundation. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 204 In the Studio, 2013–14. Oil on board, 50.8 × 50.8 (20 × 20). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 206 Frank Auerbach outside the studio, 2009. Photo David Dawson. Courtesy David Dawson

  p. 209 Chimney in Mornington Crescent – Winter Morning, 1991. Oil on canvas, 143.2 × 133 (56⅜ × 52⅜). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 210 Reclining Head of Julia II, 2007. Acrylic on board, 55.9 × 76.2 (22 × 30). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 213 Head of William Feaver, 2008. Oil on canvas, 55.9 × 51.1 (22 × 20⅛). Private collection. Courtesy Marlborough

  p. 235 Frank Auerbach, Catherine Lampert and Leon Kossoff, dinner after the opening of ‘The Mystery of Appearance’ exhibition, December 2011. Photo David Dawson. Courtesy David Dawson

  PERMISSIONS

  The author would like to thank the following for their kind permission to reproduce copyright material: Hayward Publishing for Frank Auerbach, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978; Thames & Hudson for Frank Auerbach by Robert Hughes. © 1990 Thames & Hudson Ltd, London. Text © 1990 Robert Hughes; the Estate of Judith Bumpus; Doris Downes Hughes for Robert Hughes’s interviews with Frank Auerbach and Estella West; the Estate of Estella West; Andrew Ranicki and the Estate of Marcel Reich-Ranicki; William Feaver for Frank Auerbach, Rizzoli, 2009; Yale University Press for Interviews with Artists 1966–2012 by Michael Peppiatt. Also, Richard Cork, John Tusa and the authors of other interviews.

  Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders of material in this book. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary amendments in any future edition.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The images, documents and memories of those close to Frank Auerbach over many years have allowed the book to have an ‘inside’ feeling, and I am extremely grateful to Julia Auerbach, Jake Auerbach, Sarah West, Andrew Ranicki, David Landau and William Feaver in this regard. Kate Austin at Marlborough Fine Art has been an irreplaceable collaborator throughout the process, and the Marlborough records and images as well as the encouragement of Geoffrey Parton have been essential. As is obvious from the quality and empathy of the photographs, those who have made the records of Frank in his studio have been on his wavelength, and Virginia Verran, Frances von Hofmannsthal and the photographers Marc Trivier and David Dawson have been especially helpful. The same generosity is true of those who have interviewed him, several on multiple occasions, and I have drawn upon these records of life in the studio as well as comments by friends of Frank’s, many of them artists, over time.

  Jacky Klein, formerly commissioning editor at Thames & Hudson, persuaded me to begin the book, and Roger Thorp extended the invitation. The contributions of the whole team at Thames & Hudson have been very valuable. At home I depend upon Andrew Dempsey as a reader and on him and Susana Lampert as supporters as I struggle to write.

  Frank has sharpened the anecdotes and opened up with memories, participating in this book even when anything that is ‘looking back’ must seem unwanted; and he has understood that my desire to bring out a book that was accurate and used his words might enhance the pleasure people take in his art. I am lucky to have been sitting since 1978. It is an important part of my life.

  David Dawson, Frank Auerbach, Catherine Lampert and Leon Kossoff, dinner after the opening of ‘The Mystery of Appearance’ exhibition, December 2011

  INDEX

  Page numbers refer to 2015 print edition

  Abstract Expressionism 93, 94

  Adelaide, Art Gallery of South

  Australia 129

  Aitchison, Craigie 85

  Albers, Josef 37

  Alloway, Lawrence 127, 133

  Altenberg, Dr 14, 15

  Altenberg, Heinz and Ilse 15

  Amsterdam 154, 157

  Andrews, Julian 158

  Andrews, Michael 45, 69, 74, 85, 105, 108, 120, 120–21, 138, 140–41

  Apollinaire, Guillaume 35

  Appel, Karel 121

  Armitage, Kenneth 69

  Art Brut 66

  Art Informel 66

  Artaud, Antonin 94
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  Arts Council 28, 68–69, 93, 140

  Arts Council of Ireland 157

  Atkins, Raymond 73, 75

  Auden, W. H. 189

  Auerbach, Charlotte (mother) 11, 12, 14, 15, 19, 163

  Auerbach, Frank 7, 10, 12, 16, 17, 26, 81, 84, 102, 110, 118, 123, 134, 138, 165, 201, 206, 235; character and personality 6–9, 16, 50, 148–50, 162–64; childhood in Berlin 11–15; relatives and family history 11–15, 19–22, 76–80; at Bunce Court 15–19, 21–22; and poetry 18, 78, 120, 164, 189, 212–15; moves to London 21; as actor 21, 22–24; as art student 24–53; marriage to Julia Wolstenholme and birth of son Jacob 53; as teacher 72–75; building sites as subjects 55–62; sitters 87, 100, 103, 185–205, see also Mills, Julia Yardley Briggs (J.Y.M); West, Estella (Stella, E.O.W), etc.; ‘Fragments from a conversation’ 103–5; exhibits at Beaux Arts 66–71, 128; first one-person exhibition 121; exhibits at Marlborough 127–33; trips and exhibitions abroad 154–62, 208; landscapes and street scenes 171–82; paintings of women in rooms 182–84; retrospectives, at Hayward (1978) 6; at Marlborough(1964–5) 127–28; at RA (2001)207

  WORKS: All Night Party 37; Bacchus and Ariadne 146, 147; Behind Camden Town Station – Autumn Evening 130, 132; Birth, Marriage, Death 37; The Bridge 182; Building Site, Earl’s Court Road, Winter 42, 44, 66; Camden Theatre in the Rain 172, 173; The Chimney, Mornington Crescent 137; Chimney in Mornington Crescent – Winter Morning 210; E.O.W., Half-length Nude 51; E.O.W. on her Blue Eiderdown 105–6, 107; E.O.W. Nude (1952) 38–41, 39; E.O.W. Nude (1959) 103; E.O.W., Nude on Bed (1959) 68; E.O.W., S.A.W. and J.J.W. in the Garden 111, 128; Euston Steps 150; Figures on Bed 186; From the Studios 176, 177; Gaumont Cinema, Camden Town 125, 126; Head of Bruce Bernard 135, 136; Head of Catherine Lampert (1985) 8; Head of Catherine Lampert (1986) 192, 193; Head of David Landau 196; Head of E.O.W. (1935) 52; Head of E.O.W. (1972) 116; Head of E.O.W. II (1964) 115; Head of E.O.W. III (1960) 91; Head of E.O.W. VI (1961) 122; Head of Gerda Boehm 101; Head of Helen Gillespie 129; Head of Jacob 150, 161; Head of Julia (1960) 88; Head of Julia II (1999) 203; Head of J.Y.M. 187; Head of Leon Kossoff 63, 65; Head of Michael Podro 190; Head of Paula Eyles 100; Head of William Feaver 213; In the Studio 204, 205; Interior Vincent Terrace 150, 152, 153; Jacob 150, 151; Julia 188; Julia Sleeping 150; J.Y.M. in the Studio I–VIII 128; J.Y.M. in the Studio IV 97, 98; Lucian Freud 191; Mornington Crescent – Early Morning 179; Mornington Crescent with the Statue of Sickert’s Father-in-Law III, Summer Morning 129, 130, 131; Mornington Place 137; Mornington Place – Morning 166, 167–68; Nude on Bed IV 68; Oxford Street Building Site 68; Study after Turner’s The Parting of Hero and Leander 56, 57; The Pillar Box 182, 183; Portrait of Leon Kossoff 34; Primrose Hill – Winter 137; Primrose Hill (1954–55) 61, 69; Primrose Hill (1958) 69; Primrose Hill (1967–68) 147–48; Primrose Hill (1979–80) 174; Primrose Hill, Autumn Morning 54; Rebuilding the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square 70; Reclining Head of Julia (1966) 202; Reclining Head of Julia II (2007) 210; Ruth Bromberg Seated 198; Samson and Delilah (two studies after Rubens) 149; Seated Nude (1955) 43; Seated Nude (1960) 90; Self-Portrait 84; Self-Portrait II 201; Shell Building Site: Workmen under Hungerford Bridge 71, 80; Shell Building Site from the Festival Hall 58, 59, 80; study for 58, 59; The Sitting Room 108–9, 113; studies for 110; Studio with Figure on Bed 1 97, 99; Studio with Figure on Bed 11 97; The Studios – Spring Morning 175; Study after Deposition by Rembrandt 80, 80–83, 82; Study after Titian I 143; Study after Titian II 143, 144; Study for fairground mural, 1949, for the ‘kindergarten’ in Earl’s Court Road 48–49; Summer Building Site 40, 41, 66, 104; Three Blind Men 36, 37; Titian, sketch after 176, 177; Tower Blocks, Hampstead Road 180; Tree on Primrose Hill 176, 177; Tree at Tretire 156, 157

  Auerbach, Ingrid 78

  Auerbach, Jacob (Jake, son) 53, 104, 150, 151, 164, 171, 192, 195, 199

  Auerbach, Jakob (uncle) 14, 22, 77, 78

  Auerbach, Julia (née Wolstenholme) 53, 86–87, 88, 89, 150, 158, 163, 168, 176, 184, 185, 188, 189, 192, 195, 202, 203, 210

  Auerbach, Leo 78

  Auerbach, Rabbi Mannheim (grandfather) 11, 77

  Auerbach, Max (father) 11–14, 13, 15, 19, 20, 78, 163

  Auerbach in the studio with portraits of Leon Kossoff made in 1954 64

  Auschwitz (concentration camp) 19, 20

  Automatism 93

  Ayres, Gillian 86

  Bacon, Francis 42, 45, 67, 69, 71, 120–24, 128, 133–35, 138, 140–41, 142, 143, 170–71, 208, 212; Double Portrait of Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach 122–24, 123; Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion 45; Three Studies of Lucian Freud 124

  Badsworth, Gwynne (later Angell) 16

  Banks, Geoffrey 63

  Barker, George 103, 120, 189

  Barnes Collection, Merion, Pennsylvania 154

  Barr, Jr., Alfred H. 31, 33, 93, 211

  Bassano, Jacopo 144

  Battye, John Christopher 86

  Baxter, Beverley 24

  BBC 23, 42, 159

  Beauvoir, Simone de 59

  Beckett, Samuel 92, 103

  Behrens, Timothy 138, 140

  Bentine, Michael 47

  Berger, John 45, 69–71

  Berkeley, Bishop George 29

  Berlin 9, 11, 20, 22, 78, 79, 80, 137

  Bernard, Bruce 135, 136, 189; Frank in the studio 165

  Bernard, Bruce and Jeffrey 16

  Beston, Valerie 128–29, 130, 160

  Beuys, Joseph 162

  Billen, Andrew 137

  Black Mountain College, North Carolina 37

  Blackwood, Lady Caroline 63

  Bloch, Elise 19

  Blum, Erika 19

  Boehm, Gerd (Gerhard) 21, 79

  Boehm, Gerda (née Reich) 21, 31, 77, 79, 100, 101, 128, 189

  Bomberg, David 24–30, 32, 35, 37–38, 46, 55, 71, 94, 142, 147

  Borchardt, Hans (uncle) 22

  Borough Group 28

  Boshier, Derek 127

  Bowness, Alan 71

  Bradshaw, Lawrence H. 108

  Braque, Georges 62

  Brent, Leslie Baruch 19

  Brewer, Francesca 189

  Brighton 114

  British Council 140, 158

  Bromberg, Ruth 192, 198

  Bromley College of Art (later Ravensbourne College of Art and Design) 73, 168

  Brueghel, Pieter 18

  Bumpus, Judith 159

  Bunce Court, Kent 15–19, 20, 21–22, 24, 55

  Burra, Edward 22

  Butler, Reg 76

  Byzantine art 94

  Cahiers d’Art 92

  Cambridge Opinion 171

  Camp, Jeffrey 74

  Campbell, Brigid 157

  Campbell, Patrick 120

  Camus, Albert 59

  Capote, Truman, In Cold Blood 129–30

  Caro, Anthony 140

  Caro, Gabriele and Lola 20

  Caroline (sitter to Giacometti) 199

  Caulfield, Patrick 127

  Cézanne, Paul 46, 148, 154, 155, 189, 212, 214

  Chagall, Marc 80

  Chekhov, Anton 181

  The Children’s Encyclopaedia 18

  Christie’s New York 124

  Christ’s Hospital (school), Horsham 106

  Chrysler Art Museum, Massachusetts 68

  Clough, Prunella 85

  Cobden, Richard 130

  Cohen, Bernard 35, 127

  Cohen, Harold 74–75

  Cohn, Leopold 19

  Coker, Peter 35

  Colburn, Keith 73

  Coldstream, William 41–42, 45, 46, 55, 69, 71, 74, 75–76, 108, 121, 137

  Colquhoun, Robert 120

  ‘Constable: The Making of a Master’ (exhibition) 62

  Constable, John 62, 181

  Contemporary Art Society 69

  Cork, Richard 67, 125, 162

  Cornwall 73, 85

  Couch, Christopher 75, 189

  Courbet, Gustave 108, 172, 200

  Creffield, Dennis 28

  Cripps, David,
Julia Auerbach 89

  Cronin, Anthony 103

  Cubism 24, 62, 71, 94, 208

  Cunningham, Keith 67

  Daily Express 124

  ‘Daily Express Young Artists’ Exhibition’ 63

  Daily Sketch 124

  Dalí, Salvador 157

  Dark, Christopher 189

  Darwin, Robin 42

  Daumier, Honoré 182

  Davis, Stuart 93

  Dawson, David 139; Auerbach outside the studio 206; Frank Auerbach, Catherine Lampert and Leon Kossoff 235

  de Kooning, Willem 69, 93, 94–97, 96, 147, 167

  Deakin, John 119, 140, 208; Frank Auerbach in the Golden Lion pub, Dean Street, London 118; Wheeler’s, Old Compton Street, Soho 138

  Degas, Edgar 104, 124, 158, 182, 184

  Deighton, Len 30

  Delacroix, Eugène 105, 211

  Denny, Robyn 86

  ‘Dick Barton – Special Agent’ 23

  Diego (sitter to Giacometti) 158, 199

  Dix, Otto 142

  Downes, Rackstraw 181

  Drateln, Doris von 162

  Dublin 124; Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art 157

  Dubuffet, Jean 66

  Duchamp, Marcel 76

  Dunworth, Shane 189

  Dürer, Albrecht 200

  Durian, Wolf 14

  Dyer, George 121, 122

  Earhart, Amelia 124–25

  Eckersley, Tom 24

  Ecole de Paris 31, 140

  Eichmann, Adolf 80

  ‘Eight Figurative Painters’ (exhibition) 142

  El Greco 27, 212

  Elderfield, John 94

  Eliot, T. S. 35, 171

  Elkins, James 168

  E.O.W. see West, Estella (Stella, E.O.W.)

  Essen, Folkwang Museum 162

  Essex, University of 144

  Essinger, Anna 14–15, 16, 22

  Essinger, Herman 22

  Everyman 21, 170

  Expressionism 141

  Eyles, Paula 100

  Farson, Daniel 122

  Fautrier, Jean 66

  Feaver, William 192, 212, 213

  Fell, Sheila 35

  Festival of Britain 45

  Financial Times 200

  Finer, Stephen 189

  Fischer, Harry 127–28, 129

  Fisher, Sandra 189

  Forge, Andrew 45, 68, 71, 85, 127, 142

  France 20