City gallery acquires an Auerbach

A MAJOR painting by the British artist Frank Auerbach has been acquired by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Portrait of Julia is a portrait of the artist's wife, Julia Wolstenholme, whom Auerbach married in 1958 and who first posed for him in 1959.

Formerly in the collection of the artist's aunt, Gerda Boehm, it was accepted by the government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and has been allocated to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Born in Berlin in 1931, Auerbach left Germany in 1939 to live in England. After the war he settled in London. In 1954 he took over the Camden Town studio of fellow artist and friend Leon Kossoff and he has used the same studio ever since.

His paintings are characterised by extremely thick layers of paint. Although this has the appearance of accumulating over several months, the artist regularly scrapes off all the paint to start afresh. Auerbach is known as one of the 'School of London' artists.