Born to Jewish parents in Berlin in 1931, Auerbach was sent to England in 1939; his parents remained behind and subsequently perished in concentration camps. He studied at St Martin’s School of Art (1948–52) and the Royal College of Art in London, also taking evening classes with Gustav Metzger and Leon Kossoff at the Borough Polytechnic taught by David Bomberg. When Metzger moved to Kings Lynn, Norfolk in 1953 he passed on his studio near Mornington Crescent to Kossoff, who within the year had passed it to Auerbach. Following his first solo exhibition at the Beaux-Arts Gallery in 1956, Auerbach has become one of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary artists, known for his characteristic application of impasto paint and energetic draughtsmanship.
This is one of a dozen portraits of Auerbach’s friend Helen Gillespie, painted over a five-year period from 1961 and 1966. They were introduced by one of Auerbach’s key models, Stella West (E.O.W.) and the sittings broadened his small ‘family’ of preferred sitters and encouraged experimentation. Her portraits form, as the critic William Feaver has observed ‘a tight but potent body of work, remarkable for their quality.’ Paint is applied in thick, craggy layers, her features and introspective expression delineated by restrained areas of black.
During this period, Auerbach’s output was low, owing to the time and effort involved in each painting, and the two-year date range confirms the dedication of both artist and sitter.
