Frank Auerbach
1962
Charcoal and chalk on paper
76.2 x 55.9 cm
Helen Gillespie was a friend of Frank Auerbach’s partner, Stella West, and the only sitter from that period who was not well-known to the artist. Despite this unfamiliarity, Auerbach created this striking drawing of her. She is revealed in a flash of light, her form just pinned in place by darting lines of white and red. This was one of the last charcoal heads from Auerbach’s early career. He didn’t return to making large-scale portrait drawings until the mid 1970s.