Head of Helen Gillespie III

Auerbach, whose early years were spent in the shadow of the rise of Nazism, was born in Germany to Jewish parents. In 1939, at the age of eight, along with many other Jewish children, he fled to England, leaving his parents behind. Sadly, he never saw his parents again. Auerbach pursued an artistic career, studying at a variety of art schools across London, including St Martin’s College, the Royal College of Art and the Borough Polytechnic. Auerbach is recognised as a bold figurative painter and is often associated with other School of London artists such as Francis Bacon.

For Auerbach, the intimate nature of painting a portrait requires an equally intimate relationship with the sitter, meaning that he rarely paints anyone but close friends and associates. Each portrait is completed over numerous sittings, sometimes resulting in a suite of works, such as the portraits of Helen Gillespie. This work, one of six portraits of Gillespie undertaken during the mid-1960s, demonstrates Auerbach’s bold and expressive style, achieved through the use of thick impasto, and his highly painterly technique. Eschewing realism, Auerbach uses colour, gesture and form in his work to distil the essence of his sitter onto his canvases. 

Tansy Curtin, Curator, International Art pre–1980