Frank Auerbach

Private Collection, United Kingdom
Private Collection, United Kingdom
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 20th Century British Art, 11 December 2006, Lot 161
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, New York 2009, p. 236, no. 10, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the dark green brushstroke to the right of the figure's head is slightly deeper in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is very light wear to the edges of the cardboard. There are staples on the upper and lower edges which have rusted over time, visible in the catalogue illustration. Extremely close inspection reveals a minute and unobtrusive speck of loss towards the centre of the lower edge. No restoration is apparent under ultraviolet light.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Executed in 1952, Head of E.O.W. is one of the first portraits Frank Auerbach ever painted of Estella (Stella) Olive West. The painter and his model met in 1948 at the after-party for the theatre play they were both starring in; Peter Ustinov’s House of Regrets, produced by Auerbach’s friend and playwright Frank Marcus. West recalls: “I can remember the first time I ever saw Frank, he was only seventeen…I remember sitting on the sofa and Frank was down the other end. I had a lot of hair…in a big bun at the back and lots of hairpins, about forty of them! And then I was aware after a while - we were all drinking - some of these hairpins were gradually being pulled out! A lot of them came out and then I realised that Frank was taking them out and gradually all my hair came down” (Stella West in: Frank Auerbach: To the Studio, Hannah Rothschild and Jake Auerbach Productions 2011, video). That same year Auerbach moved to the basement of the house Stella was lodging in Earl’s Court. Soon they became lovers and she his main model and muse. Two-hour sittings took place three times a week in Auerbach’s basement. The artist would paint with furious energy; working and re-working the surface, erasing, scraping and making the paint slowly build up in a manner that would become so characteristic. West remembers “he had a kitchen chair and he’d be kneeling, painting on his knees. I used to think, why am I doing this [sitting for him] with three children and a demanding job? I just loved him” (Stella West quoted in: William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, New York 2009, p. 11).

Head of E.O.W. is a poignant and intimate portrait; Auerbach’s brush has built up layer upon layer of paint to reveal Stella. Her head is slightly downcast, as if in meditative thought. The artist masterfully conveys his model’s physical and psychological appearance; that of a young widow and mother of three, an amateur actress who lodged her house and worked as a nurse in the Family Service Unit in Hoxton. In 1952, the year Head of E.O.W. was painted, Auerbach enrolled at the Royal College of Art after having studied at Central St. Martin’s. Besides learning from his teachers, Auerbach learned from the great masters in the collections of the National and the Tate Galleries; Rembrandt and Titian became sources of inspiration and set his standards. A student with limited resources, the artist could only afford to work in a certain way, as he explained: “the heads of E.O.W…were all done by electric light and in the evening. I think it may well be that electric light had something to do with the look that they had, that is, the particular colours and the paint. For the first years, say from 1952 to 1958, I could really only afford to work in the way I did, which was to make everything again and again and again, by using earth colours and black and white (the artist quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Hayward Gallery; Edinburgh, Fruit Market Gallery, Frank Auerbach, 1978, p. 14). With his adept use of materials, Auerbach gave his limited palette tactile quality, imbuing Head of E.O.W. with life and a sense of intimacy that is unique to his paintings.