- 28
Frank Auerbach
Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 GBP
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Description
- Frank Auerbach
- Seated Model IV
- oil on paper laid on board
- 110.5 by 66.7cm.
- 43 1/2 by 26 1/4 in.
- Executed in 1963.
Provenance
Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London
Private Collection, London
Galleri K, Oslo
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1989
Private Collection, London
Galleri K, Oslo
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1989
Exhibited
London, Marlborough Find Art Ltd., Studies of the Nude, 1986, p. 10, no. 1, illustrated in colour
Jevnaker, Kistefos-Museet, Kropp: fra Munch til Melgaard, 2004, p. 23, no. 1, illustrated in colour
Jevnaker, Kistefos-Museet, Kropp: fra Munch til Melgaard, 2004, p. 23, no. 1, illustrated in colour
Literature
William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, New York 2009, p. 253, no. 153, illustrated in colour
Condition
Colour:
The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although they are warmer and richer in the original, and the illustration fails to convey the purple tones towards the top of the composition.
Condition:
This work is in very good condition. There are artist's pinholes towards all four corners and to the centre of the left and right edges. There are stable drying cracks to the thickest areas of the impasto, which are inherent to the artist's choice of media. No restoration is visible under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."
Catalogue Note
“The energy of the execution may first strike the viewer, but it is energy in pursuit of a geometry of an exact expression.”
The artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Royal Academy, Frank Auerbach: Paintings and Drawings 1951 – 2001, 2001, p. 62.
Frank Auerbach's Seated Model IV is a striking exposition of the painter's wholly inimitable, physically immediate and psychologically urgent figurative painting. Forged in the artist’s Camden studio in 1963, the emphatic blows of gestural energy that comprise the full-length Seated Model IV conjures a remarkably atmospheric evocation of physical presence: at once corporeality and paint landscape coincide, breaching the boundaries between figuration and the abstract. As is so characteristic of early works from this period owing to their dense painterly composition, the palette is limited to the pigments that could be bought cheaply and in quantity at the time. Though predominantly black and white with a faint underlying hint of deep yellow and brown ochre, Auerbach masterfully extracts a sculptural richness from this focused range of hues that in turn forces the viewer to address both the presence of the sitter and the physical substance of the paint material itself. All this achieves an unmistakable air of authenticity, of the focused observance of a real person: as magnificently communicated by Seared Model IV, this sense of reality - of a sitter presented without artifice - is incredibly persuasive.
Seated on the habitually recurrent Windsor chair familiar throughout Auerbach's oeuvre, a delineation of Seated Model extends the length of the board. According to the regimented routine of Auerbach's working method, poses and vantage points differ only slightly from subject to subject. In the case of the present painting, the definition of figure versus background is almost buried under an avalanche of worked and re-worked paint material. Executed over the extended course of countless sittings and subsequent erasures, a minutiae of observed inflections of the sitter’s presence are tirelessly sculptured into the work’s painted fabric– an artistic process that demands a great level of commitment, week on week, from his familiar pantheon of regular models.
Since the l950s, Frank Auerbach's weekly routine has annually produced a surprisingly concise output of twelve to fifteen finished works, of which roughly two-thirds are portraits. These dynamic and vigorously spontaneous paintings are the result of an arduous process of intense scrutiny and endless erasure. Where Francis Bacon slashed and destroyed innumerable canvases, Auerbach ruthlessly scrapes off the toiled progress of paintings that don't meet his high expectations; the faint ghosts they leave behind act as the starting point upon which Auerbach begins again, almost from scratch. Approaching the conditions of a palimpsest, Frank Auerbach's paintings reflect the way in which ancient manuscripts were repeatedly scraped down and reused – a practice that left behind the trace of faint but legible under-layers. This repetitive yet cumulative process, sometimes stretching over years, reaches a point of distillation, a moment of fraught realisation at which Auerbach attains a semblance of the immediate reality he is ultimately aiming to enshrine in paint. Urgently conveying the paroxysmal gestures of these pivotally decisive final moments, Auerbach's finished portraits come as an essential revelation of the immediate fluidity of appearance. Indeed, as Walter Sickert, former resident of Auerbach's neighbourhood and great inspiration for the artist, once aphorised: "Things that are any good are so quick, and the moral is to learn to draw, and draw quickly" (Walter Sickert cited in: William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, New York 2009, p. 6). Testament to this rigorous method, Auerbach's majestic Seated Model IV emerges in an urgent crescendo of expressive brushwork made possible only by the constant reworking that preceded the final moments of fraught painterly activity. Forming an uncanny link between analysis and expression, the heavy paint topography here subtly adjusts according to the play of light across its surface, to precipitate a constantly shifting schema of light and shade, which further emphasises the form of the sitter.
Seated Model IV represents a pinnacle of Auerbach's artistic achievements up to the mid 1960s: a threshold in his career after which his canvases became arenas for flurries of more sparse brushstrokes of brighter hues. This work encapsulates the tireless working and reworking of the paint strata, and vividly communicates to this day the focus and energy of its genesis. It is a remarkable visual essay on the homogenisation of the metamorphic topography of paint as the trace of atmosphere, familiarity, and physical presence. In line with the artist’s very best work, Seated Model IV seems to continually fluctuate with each view, delivering a sense that – in the words of Catherine Lampert – "the picture could stand up and walk away" (Catherine Lampert, 'Frank Auerbach' in: Exhibition Catalogue, British Pavilion, XLII Venice Biennale, Frank Auerbach: Paintings and Drawings 1977-1985, 1986, p.8).
The artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Royal Academy, Frank Auerbach: Paintings and Drawings 1951 – 2001, 2001, p. 62.
Frank Auerbach's Seated Model IV is a striking exposition of the painter's wholly inimitable, physically immediate and psychologically urgent figurative painting. Forged in the artist’s Camden studio in 1963, the emphatic blows of gestural energy that comprise the full-length Seated Model IV conjures a remarkably atmospheric evocation of physical presence: at once corporeality and paint landscape coincide, breaching the boundaries between figuration and the abstract. As is so characteristic of early works from this period owing to their dense painterly composition, the palette is limited to the pigments that could be bought cheaply and in quantity at the time. Though predominantly black and white with a faint underlying hint of deep yellow and brown ochre, Auerbach masterfully extracts a sculptural richness from this focused range of hues that in turn forces the viewer to address both the presence of the sitter and the physical substance of the paint material itself. All this achieves an unmistakable air of authenticity, of the focused observance of a real person: as magnificently communicated by Seared Model IV, this sense of reality - of a sitter presented without artifice - is incredibly persuasive.
Seated on the habitually recurrent Windsor chair familiar throughout Auerbach's oeuvre, a delineation of Seated Model extends the length of the board. According to the regimented routine of Auerbach's working method, poses and vantage points differ only slightly from subject to subject. In the case of the present painting, the definition of figure versus background is almost buried under an avalanche of worked and re-worked paint material. Executed over the extended course of countless sittings and subsequent erasures, a minutiae of observed inflections of the sitter’s presence are tirelessly sculptured into the work’s painted fabric– an artistic process that demands a great level of commitment, week on week, from his familiar pantheon of regular models.
Since the l950s, Frank Auerbach's weekly routine has annually produced a surprisingly concise output of twelve to fifteen finished works, of which roughly two-thirds are portraits. These dynamic and vigorously spontaneous paintings are the result of an arduous process of intense scrutiny and endless erasure. Where Francis Bacon slashed and destroyed innumerable canvases, Auerbach ruthlessly scrapes off the toiled progress of paintings that don't meet his high expectations; the faint ghosts they leave behind act as the starting point upon which Auerbach begins again, almost from scratch. Approaching the conditions of a palimpsest, Frank Auerbach's paintings reflect the way in which ancient manuscripts were repeatedly scraped down and reused – a practice that left behind the trace of faint but legible under-layers. This repetitive yet cumulative process, sometimes stretching over years, reaches a point of distillation, a moment of fraught realisation at which Auerbach attains a semblance of the immediate reality he is ultimately aiming to enshrine in paint. Urgently conveying the paroxysmal gestures of these pivotally decisive final moments, Auerbach's finished portraits come as an essential revelation of the immediate fluidity of appearance. Indeed, as Walter Sickert, former resident of Auerbach's neighbourhood and great inspiration for the artist, once aphorised: "Things that are any good are so quick, and the moral is to learn to draw, and draw quickly" (Walter Sickert cited in: William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, New York 2009, p. 6). Testament to this rigorous method, Auerbach's majestic Seated Model IV emerges in an urgent crescendo of expressive brushwork made possible only by the constant reworking that preceded the final moments of fraught painterly activity. Forming an uncanny link between analysis and expression, the heavy paint topography here subtly adjusts according to the play of light across its surface, to precipitate a constantly shifting schema of light and shade, which further emphasises the form of the sitter.
Seated Model IV represents a pinnacle of Auerbach's artistic achievements up to the mid 1960s: a threshold in his career after which his canvases became arenas for flurries of more sparse brushstrokes of brighter hues. This work encapsulates the tireless working and reworking of the paint strata, and vividly communicates to this day the focus and energy of its genesis. It is a remarkable visual essay on the homogenisation of the metamorphic topography of paint as the trace of atmosphere, familiarity, and physical presence. In line with the artist’s very best work, Seated Model IV seems to continually fluctuate with each view, delivering a sense that – in the words of Catherine Lampert – "the picture could stand up and walk away" (Catherine Lampert, 'Frank Auerbach' in: Exhibition Catalogue, British Pavilion, XLII Venice Biennale, Frank Auerbach: Paintings and Drawings 1977-1985, 1986, p.8).