Frank Auerbach

Marlborough Fine Art, London, where acquired by the present owner

London, Marlborough Fine Art, On View, Works on Paper, September 1994;
London, Marlborough Fine Art, Frank Auerbach: Some Drawings and Three New Paintings, June - July 2004, cat. no.1, illustrated.

William Feaver, Frank Auerbach, Rizzoli, New York, 2009, cat. no.32, illustrated p.239;
Cate Haste, Sheila Fell A Passion for Paint, Lund Humphries, Surrey, 2010, illustrated pl.15, p.27.

Please note the following condition report has been kindly prepared by Jane McAusland FIIC, Conservator and Restorer of Art on Paper, Nether Hall Barn, Old Newton, Nr. Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 4PP. Support: Auerbach has used a sheet of thick, wove handmade paper though the deckled edges have been trimmed off, maybe before the artist used the sheet. There are artist pinholes at all corners showing lacunae of the medium in these areas. The upper right hole has a small associated loss. The paper shows very slight disolouration otherwise it is in a good condition. Medium: There is a very small surface damage in the medium on the subject's left eye. This appears to be fairly recent as it does not show up in earlier photographs. Otherwise the medium is in an excellent condition. Note: This work was viewed outside studio conditions. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 should you have any questions regarding the present work.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Having first met Fell whilst the pair were studying together at St Martin’s School of Art, Auerbach formed an intense attachment to the attractive and reserved young artist, which as Cate Haste remarks is captured in the  ‘mysterious disturbing intensity’ of the present work (Cate Haste, Sheila Fell, Lund Humphries, Surrey, 2010, p.28).  In this early portrait the artist develops the worked graphic technique that he would later make use of in rendering contemporaries including Kossoff and Freud, as well as the small circle of women that formed the close core of his subjects during this early period.

Here, as in these later works, the paper is worked and reworked, with bold, Bombergian charcoal strokes retaining proudly the physical scarring of the artist’s technique.  The charcoal is applied, pushed about and erased, capturing well the enigmatic presence of the sitter and the deep rooted attraction between artist and subject.  With her eyes cast in darkness, Auerbach displays the young artist with a shy vulnerability that is at once challenged by her bold and alluring stare: one of only a number of these early works in which the sitter makes direct eye contact with the artist.  Maintaining an inscrutable presence, Auerbach captures this gaze, beset by her characteristic thick black eyeliner, and tentatively reveals to us her delicate and classical beauty, lurking in the darkness.