Frank Auerbach

Acquired directly from the artist by J.Y.M. and thence by descent to the present owner

London, Marlborough Fine Art, Frank Auerbach: Recent Work, 21st September - 20th October 1990, cat. no.5, illustrated in the catalogue.

William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, Rizzoli International Publications, New York 2009, cat. no.588, illustrated p.305.

The canvas appears to be in good original condition. The paint surface is thick with impasto and in good overall condition. There is no sign of retouching under ultra-violet light. Held under glass in a wooden frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Auerbach first met Joan Yardley Mills (JYM) at Sidcup College of Art in 1957. She was an artist herself and became Auerbach's personal model for over thirty years. During this time, JYM would pose for Auerbach every Wednesday and Sunday without fail, sitting for him for up to five hours at a time. This practice continued until 1997 when JYM was in her 80th year.

Head of J.Y.M. - Profile V was painted thirty years after JYM and Auerbach first met, in 1987 and it is interesting to think about how well Auerbach would have known her appearance after that amount of time: every expression, characteristic and subtle detail. Auerbach abstracts what he sees and paints thick black lines to delineate JYM's features against the kaleidoscopic array of colour in the impasto marking out the rest of her head. As Auerbach himself noted, 'To paint the same head over and over leads you to its unfamiliarity; eventually you get near the raw truth about it, just as people only blurt out the raw truth about it in the middle of a family quarrel.' (Robert Hughes, Frank Auerbach, London, 1990, p.19).

JYM described her time with Auerbach after she had retired from modelling for him. 'We had a wonderful relationship because I thought the world of him and he was very fond of me. There was no sort of romance but we were very close. Real friends. Sundays now I'm always miserable.' (Catherine Lampert, Norman Rosenthal and Ian Carlisle, Frank Auerbach: Paintings and Drawings 1954-2001, London, Royal Academy, 2001, pp.26-27).