‘‘If one were to enter the world of Auerbach’s paintings one might become lost,
as if it were a city, among the incandescent forms and the brilliant colours (…)’’

Peter Ackroyd, 1994

Widely regarded as one of Britain’s most significant painters, Frank Auerbach has spent a lifetime capturing the restless energy and physicality of London. Peter Ackroyd’s comparison of Auerbach’s work to a city—vibrant, immersive, and full of shifting forms—feels especially apt when considering the paintings that emerged from the artist’s long-standing Camden studio.

In 1990, after more than three decades of working there, Auerbach purchased the modest 16-foot-square studio where he had been painting since 1954. With its single north-facing window and overhead skylight, the space was originally unheated, uninsulated, and without a telephone or hot water. Seeking to make it more hospitable, he turned to his friend, R.B. Kitaj, who recommended the architect Morgan Long. Long reimagined the space, adding a small kitchen, a boiler, radiators, and a bathroom tucked beneath a tiny mezzanine sleeping area. Though the renovation made the studio more liveable, it also imposed a practical constraint: Auerbach could now work on only one large canvas at a time.

This limitation, however, became a catalyst for creativity. In this intimate setting, Auerbach began to produce numerous small paintings—works that were no less vital than his larger compositions. These smaller canvases functioned as essential exploratory tools, allowing him to test ideas around composition, colour, and texture. For Auerbach, scale is no measure of importance: each painting, regardless of size, is part of the same rigorous and intuitive process.

"If you pass something every day and it has a little character, it begins to intrigue you" 1 Auerbach once remarked. That intrigue is evident in Park Village East, a work that captures both the grandeur and everyday charm of a distinctive London street. Just a short walk from his studio, Park Village East—with its detached villas, ornate Victorian lampposts, street signs and red postboxes—offered Auerbach a rich visual vocabulary. The present painting, which depicts the junction of Park Village East and Mornington Street, is the first in a compelling series of 21 oil paintings focused on this location. A bridge crosses the railway lines leading out of Euston Station; to the left, a red 'No Entry' sign punctuates the composition, balanced on the right by a signature three-headed lamppost. A larger painting from the same series, Park Village East, Winter (1998–99), now forms part of the collection at the National Museum of Wales.

Each landscape begins with intensive drawing—Auerbach often revisits the same site dozens of times, filling sketchbooks with observations that later inform his paintings. The dynamism of these studies is retained in the final work, which, rendered in Auerbach’s unmistakable heavy impasto, takes on a sculptural presence. Thick black strokes give structure to the scene—trees, architecture, street furniture—while his masterful use of colour lends it life: dusky blues and earthy greens are charged with sudden bursts of cherry red.

Like his contemporary Francis Bacon, Auerbach relies not on photographic accuracy but painterly instinct. Both artists saw painting as a medium for exploring sensation rather than appearance. In his early practice, Auerbach would layer new paint over the previous day’s work, resulting in extraordinarily dense surfaces. Since the 1960s, however, he has shifted approach—scraping back each day’s efforts before beginning anew, pushing towards a final image that coalesces quickly and decisively. For Auerbach, a painting is only complete when it achieves what he describes as a
"reinvention of the physical world" 2—a vision that captures both the essence and the energy of a place.

Born in Berlin in 1931, Auerbach arrived in Britain in 1939 and began his formal art training in 1948 at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art, later studying at the Royal College of Art. Yet his most formative experiences came at the Borough Polytechnic, where he studied under David Bomberg alongside Leon Kossoff. Bomberg’s emphasis on capturing “the spirit in the mass” left a lasting impression, shaping Auerbach’s philosophy of art as a search for the underlying force and rhythm of a subject.
The radiant palette of Park Village East (1994) evokes the warmth and clarity of a summer’s day. The painting exemplifies Auerbach’s later style—more direct in its depiction, more luminous in tone—without losing the visceral intensity for which his work is known. Through his distinctive, tactile handling of paint, Auerbach not only records the physical features of a familiar London street, but also communicates the emotion and sensation of being present within it. Through his distinct application of paint, Auerbach not only captures the physicality of the scene but also masterfully conveys the emotion and sensation tied to it.

1 Frank Auerbach cited in: John O'Mahony, ‘Surfaces and depths’, The Guardian, 15 September 2001, online
2 Frank Auerbach cited in: ArtUK, National Museum Wales, National Museum Cardiff, online