working drawing for `Primrose Hill' 1968

Frank Auerbach made this working drawing for 'Primrose Hill' in charcoal and crayon. It's a preparatory study for a painting. Auerbach’s art is rooted in post-war London, in a community of émigré artists centred around the Slade School of Art. They developed an intensely physical approach to painting. We see the legacy of British landscape painting here, but filtered through the lens of European Expressionism. The drawing has a raw, unsettled quality and is caught between abstraction and figuration. It captures the energy of the city as it recovered from the war. Art historians study drawings like this, in relation to other works by the artist. We consider them within the history of the city and the institutions that shaped his practice. This allows us to understand the complex social conditions that shape artistic production.