Frank Auerbach

"I go out each morning and draw.  I can't really start a painting in the morning until I've done a drawing"

the artist cited in Exhibition Catalogue, London, Royal Academy of Arts, Frank Auerbach, Paintings and Drawings 1954-2001, 2001, p. 124

A sublime example of the vigorous expressivity achieved with charcoal, Head of Catherine Lampert II is one of the most important works on paper by Frank Auerbach to come to auction in recent years.  The drawing is a stunning meditation in bold chiaroscuro, black cloisonné lines structuring a loose framework which anchors the head's position on the page.  Just as Auerbach builds and scrapes back the pigments in his painted compositions, so here the features are repeatedly drawn in and rubbed out, creating a richly monochrome ground that gives nuanced form to the sitter's face. Set in relief are the boldly etched contours of heavy charcoal: eyes are sunken black cavities, chin and jaw are described in loops and curves, and shards of light pick out the planes of forehead, cheek and nose.  Each sweep of charcoal constructs a head which seems to pivot on its neck, the angularity of line and intensity of stroke capturing the sitter's elusive likeness in a fortuitous flurry of the hand. 

Catherine Lampert began sitting for Auerbach in May 1978 after curating the celebrated retrospective exhibition at the Hayward Gallery the same year. Through the process of organising the exhibition and writing the catalogue, Lampert built up a strong relationship with the artist based on her respect and admiration for his work. One of a small number of sitters whom Auerbach regularly drew and painted, Lampert visited the artist frequently on Monday evenings for over twenty years.

Executed in 1978-79, the same year as the Lampert-curated retrospective was staged by the Arts Council of Great Britain, and at a time when international appreciation of his work was soaring, Head of Catherine Lampert II is emblematic of the significance of drawing within the artist's broader oeuvre. The immediacy and power of his works on paper are the result of the lightness and experimentation afforded by the medium, each mark communicating the artist's thought process from start to finish.  For Head of Catherine Lampert II, the result is an indelible record of the tangible familiarity between artist and muse, preserving all the freshness and spontaneity of a sketch while simultaneously condensing days of work into a single enduring image.