Frank Auerbach

Private Collection, England
Marlborough Fine Art, London
Private Collection, London
Marlborough Fine Art, London, where acquired by the present owner in 2001

William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, Rizzoli, New York 2009, cat. no.15, illustrated p.237.

There is a small pin hole to the canvas near the lower left corner and a tiny hairline crack, approx. 2cm. long, above the sitter's right eye, only visible upon very close inspection; otherwise the work appears in excellent overall condition with strong passages of impasto throughout. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held under glass in a dark stained wooden box frame; unexamined out of frame. Please telephone the department on 0207 293 6424 if you have any questions about 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."

Portrait of Philip Holmes is one of Auerbach's earliest portraits and unusually, the only painting in which Holmes appears - in contrast to the regular portrayal of sitters such as Leon Kossoff, Stella West or Gerda Boehm - although they remained in contact over the years. Holmes studied at St Martin's and shared a similar painterly attitude and aesthetic to both Auerbach and Kossoff.

At this stage of his career, Auerbach had recently enrolled at the Royal College of Art in September 1952 and he was still regularly attending David Bomberg's classes two evenings a week, where he was greatly influenced by Bomberg's teaching and his advocation of 'an intenser expression...stripped of all irrelevant matter' (quoted in William Feaver, op. cit., p.9).

These were formative times, and in the present work we see Auerbach lay down ideas that were to be an on-going exploration in his portraiture to follow. The application of paint is characteristically thick but the composition is tighter and the brushstrokes are less individual and energetic than in his 'heads' from the late 1960s onwards. Colour too is more subdued, rich but relatively monochromatic, employing dark, earthy reds and yellows, which was a feature largely determined by his financial situation. 'For the first years, say from 1952 to 1958, I could really only afford to work in the way that I did, which was to make a thing again and again and again, by using earth colours and black and white. I used to put grey sludge in tins and hope to use it again' (Auerbach quoted in William Feaver, op. cit., p.11). A formal device utilised in Portrait of Philip Holmes that persists throughout Auerbach's work is the cropped, up-close depiction of the sitter, his head filling the picture space, which gives a sense of focused observance of a real person. The result is an intense and personal portrait, which expresses a sense of intimacy and inwardness in which the force of Auerbach's portraits lie.