- Artist
- Frank Auerbach born 1931
- Medium
- Oil paint on wood
- Dimensions
- Support: 433 × 355 mm
frame: 645 × 547 × 95 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the executors of the estate of David Wilkie 1993
- Reference
- T06682
Display caption
This is a head study of Stella West ('E.O.W'), Auerbach's principal model from the early 1950s until 1963. A related work, 'Head of E.O.W V, is also on display here. Both paintings belong to a series of life size frontal heads on which Auerbach worked between late 1960 and summer 1961. The paint is built up and has an almost sculptural quality. This is the result of repeated overpainting of previous images on the same board, and is an extreme example of Auerbach's endeavour to convey a sense of his accumulated experience of the model.
Gallery label, September 2004
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