Frank Auerbach

Marlborough Fine Art, London
David Niven, Château-d'Œx, Switzerland
Sale, Christie's London, 26th May 1995, lot 281, where acquired by David Bowie

London, Hayward Gallery, Frank Auerbach, 4th May - 2nd July 1978, cat. no.66, illustrated p.88, with Arts Council Tour to Fruit Market Gallery, Edinburgh;
London, Royal Academy, Frank Auerbach: Paintings and Drawings, 1954-2001, 15th September - 12th December 2001, cat. no.18, illustrated p.53.

Robert Hughes, Frank Auerbach, Thames and Hudson, London, 1990, cat. no.119, illustrated p.157;
William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, Rizzoli, New York, 2009, cat. no.203, illustrated pp.74 and 259.

Structural Condition The artist's thick panel appears to be structurally secure and has a vertical baton on the reverse and is soundly held in the wooden frame. Paint surface The paint surface appears to have the artist's original unvarnished appearance. The heavily textured and impastoed paint surface appears secure. There are some very minimal, and almost inevitable, flecks of tiny paint loss to the outer edges and a some fine lines of craquelure that appear to be structurally secured. The tips of two of the thickly impastoed elements have been re-adhered and stabilised but not retouched. The first of these had become detached some time ago and was re-adhered a number of years ago. The second was not detached and was stabilised recently. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows the paint surface to fluoresce unevenly which is very characteristic of the artist's thickly impastoed paint surface, but no retouchings are visible. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in very good and stable condition. The above report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar Ltd., 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, St James, London, SW1Y 6BU. The work is float mounted and presented in a wooden box frame, held under glass. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"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."

‘Somebody I like very much indeed is Frank Auerbach. I think there are some mornings that if we hit each other a certain way - myself and a portrait by Auerbach - the work can magnify the kind of depression I'm going through. It will give spiritual weight to my angst. Some mornings I'll look at it and go, "Oh, God, yeah! I know!" But that same painting, on a different day, can produce in me an incredible feeling of the triumph of trying to express myself as an artist. I can look at it and say, "My God, yeah! I want to sound like that looks." I find his kind of bas-relief way of painting extraordinary. Sometimes I'm not really sure if I'm dealing with sculpture or painting. Plus, I've always been a huge David Bomberg fan. I love that particular school…’ (David Bowie, Interview with Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times, 14th June 1998).

Frank Auerbach was a trailblazer amongst the new generation of artists who built their reputations amidst the embers of war-torn London during the 1950s. He had moved to London from Berlin in 1939 and attended St Martin’s School of Art but soon discovered David Bomberg’s evening classes at the Borough Polytechnic which were to prove inspirational to his development. Bomberg encouraged an organic, spontaneous approach to capturing form, what he termed the ‘spirit in the mass’ and Auerbach remembers that ‘he had this sort of idiom that allowed one to go for the essence at the very beginning to adumbrate a figure in ten minutes and then to re-do it and then to find different terms in which to re-state it until one got something… (the Artist, interview with John Tusa, BBC Radio 3, 7th October 2001).

Head of Gerda Boehm is the ultimate example of all that he had learnt from Bomberg but also demonstrates the dramatic innovations he brought to portraiture, that most traditional of artistic genres. The intensity of his response to sitter and subject is gloriously brought to life through his bravura handling of oil. The paint has been acutely layered to create a textured topography of pigment where impasto seemingly drips from the surface enlivening the bold silhouette that emerges from the composition. In comparison to the earthy tones of black, grey and brown that characterised many of his portraits from the previous decade, such as Head of Leon Kossoff (1954, Private Collection) and Head of E.O.W (1955, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff), the luminous hues of the sitter’s face are immediately striking and contrast dramatically to the energetic outlines of black impasto which vigorously sculpt the eyes, nose, mouth and jaw. Flashes of burgundy punctuate the hair, all framed against a rich background of olive green and ochre tones.

The result of many hours spent before his subject, analysing her every feature and staring into her soul, Head of Gerda Boehm is undoubtedly one of the most psychologically arresting portraits from the decade. The intense accretion of paint mirrors Auerbach’s acute powers of scrutiny and reveals his passionate relationship with paint; building up the surface of the composition, scraping it away only to build it up again, always striving to capture the unique presence of the person, the very essence of the being seated before him: '…the paint became thicker and thicker, and I didn't notice it...the surface of the painting was eloquent, but it wasn't eloquent for its own sake... It wasn't intentional at all. But on the other hand I was quite prepared to let anything happen because I wanted to make something new' (the Artist, quoted in William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, Rizzoli, New York, 2009, p.231).

Gerda Boehm first sat for Auerbach in 1961 and continued sitting at regular intervals until 1982. An older cousin, she was the only member of his family that he saw after leaving Germany before the Second World War and his portraits of her are undoubtedly amongst the most emotionally charged of his career.