Frank Auerbach 1931-2024
55.9 x 38.1 cm
This life drawing of a standing nude was almost certainly carried out during Auerbach's student years at the Royal College and shows the beginnings of his distinctive vigorous and heavily worked style.
The sitter is believed to be June Furlong (3 June 1930 - 20 November 2020), who modelled at the RA and RCA and knew many artists including Lucian Freud, something later recounted in her autobiography June: A Life Study (APML, c.2000).
Collections of Auerbach’s prints and sketches are held in public collections including The National Gallery, London, and The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Examples of Auerbach’s work across several mediums are also held in The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The British Museum, London; Tate, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Städel Museum, Frankfurt; and the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, London.
Provenance
Acquired from the artist by the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum Art Committee, 16 October 1968Exhibitions
Ben Uri Gallery, London, Selections from the Permanent Collection: Watercolours, Drawings, Graphics, 1977.
Ben Uri Gallery, London, Prints and Drawings from the Permanent Collection, 1989.
Ben Uri Gallery, London, Jewish Artists at the Slade: Exhibition of Works from the Ben Uri Collection to be shown with Recent Acquisitions, 1992.
Ben Uri Gallery, London, Director’s Choice: Highlights from the Ben Uri Permanent Collection Selected by Richard Aronowitz-Mercer, Director and Senior Curator, 2003.
Ben Uri Gallery, London, London Senses and Experiences: Art in the Big City - Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, Ron Kitaj, Leon Kossoff, Euan Uglow, 2007.
Somerset House, London, Out of Chaos - Ben Uri: 100 Years in London, 2015.
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, London (Department of Culture and Education), Finchleystrasse: German Artists in Exile in Great Britain and Beyond 1933-45, 2018.
Willoughby Gerrish, London, Émigré, 28 October - 21 November 2025.
Literature
Rachel Dickson and Sarah MacDougall, ed., Out of Chaos. Ben Uri: 100 Years in London, London, 2015, p. 109 (illustrated).
Willoughby Gerrish. Émigré. London: Willoughby Gerrish, 2025. Exh. cat.
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