Frank Auerbach

A gift from the Artist to the present owner

Marlborough Graphics 1-6; Hartley 1-6

Prints form a relatively small but significant part of Frank Auerbach’s prolific body of work. Throughout his decades-long career the artist has completed fewer than forty experimental editions, all of which possess the blend of dynamism and intimacy for which he is best known. Just as the thick impasto pigments and energetic brushwork of Auerbach’s paintings capture the dynamism of urban London, the charged, layered lines of his Six Drypoints of the Nude bring his mysterious models to life. Remarkably, this accomplished set of six drypoints was his first attempt at printmaking, completed while he was still a student. “These were all based on life drawings done at the Royal College of Art or at the Borough Polytechnic,” the artist himself has explained, “I chose six drawings which were still fairly fresh in my mind, out of several hundred (the vast majority of these drawings I later destroyed).” 

These early graphic works possess the immediacy and expressiveness for which Auerbach’s portraits are best known today. The textural, rhythmic lines which enhance the energy of each scene weren’t created with a fine drypoint needle, but with a nail. Detailing his process, Auerbach has revealed, “The drypoints were scratched on to pieces of alloy six inches square, bought from Romanys of Camden High Street for 6d. each. They were done with a nail, set into a pen holder with sealing wax, and printed by rubbing the back of a spoon over the back of the dampened paper. It was all very laborious; there was a lot of burnishing.”[1] This careful, arduous burnishing was key in blending the passages of highlights and shadows which make these portraits so alluring. Furthermore, in the margins of the present set of prints, inherent, inky finger marks and studio matter shed light on the young artist’s vigorous process. Though a final edition of the Six Drypoints was never made, according to Auerbach there should be approximately a dozen complete sets in existence, most of which were eventually given to friends or fellow painters. A treasured gift from the artist, this set has remained in the same private collection since 1964-65. The owner recalls their delight upon visiting the artist’s paint-splattered studio, which was covered floor to ceiling in an array of pigments: “Having connections with Marlborough Fine Art I was visiting his studio, having been invited with a friend, he just picked [the prints] off the floor and gave them to me!". The present works are the second-ever complete set to appear at auction, the first of which was in the collection of R.B. Kitaj.

[1] Frank Auerbach as quoted in Michael Podro, Frank Auerbach: The Complete Etchings 1954-1990, London: Marlborough Graphics, 1990