Frank Auerbach b. 1931

Ruth Bromberg (nee Ruth Reiss, 1921-2010) sat for Frank Auerbach every Thursday for 17 years from 1991 until 2008. Ruth first met Auerbach when her husband Joseph (1915-2011) commissioned her portrait, which was unusual as Auerbach was not known for doing so, and the couple became great friends and patrons of the artist. Joseph was born in Moscow and Ruth in Nuremberg and like Auerbach, who left Germany as a child, they both fled Nazi occupied Europe for New York in the 1940s, where they met, before moving first to Milan after the war and then to London in the 1970s. Joseph was a furrier and Ruth was a self-taught art historian, they had one son, Michael, who sadly died in his 20s from a brain tumour. Ruth wrote the catalogue raisonnés of the etchings of Antonio Canaletto (in 1974) and Walter Sickert (in 2000). The second book was prompted by a gift from Joseph of the Sickert print The Old Fiddler, c.1919. While researching it ‘Ruth discovered the absence of any scholarly publications on his prints. As a result she decided to write a catalogue raisonné. In order to aid her research, Auerbach made two half-length portrait etchings of her to show her how the etching technique worked. Ruth was deeply grateful and said in 2001: “It made a great impact on my work and brought to life a complicated procedure.” ‘

According to William Feaver’s catalogue raisonné, (published in 2009 and currently being updated), Ruth is the subject of 20 oils and 3 charcoal drawings. She also appears in a number of etchings. The drawing Ruth, 1994-5, cat no.749, and two other (as yet uncatalogued) charcoal drawings are now in the collection of the British Museum. Etchings of her are held by the Tate Gallery, London; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, British Museum, London; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester and Museum of Modern Art, New York.

On 26th June 2012 eight portraits of Ruth from the estate of Joseph and Ruth Bromberg were sold at Sotheby’s to benefit the Prints and Drawings department of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. It was the largest single sale of Auerbach’s work from a private collection at the time, until Lucian Freud’s private collection was shown at Tate Britain in 2014, before being dispersed to public institutions around the country via the Arts Council.

Throughout their friendship Ruth and Frank wrote regularly to one another. Their letters convey the character of their relationship which is based on mutual respect, and deep admiration on the part of the Brombergs. Early on, when Auerbach was still painting his first picture of Ruth, leaning back in his distinctive Windsor chair, he wrote,

"My Dear Ruth, Thank you for your nice letter. You are a most conscientious sitter - I know that it is not always easy... Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday. All Good Wishes, Frank"

Over the years the Brombergs acquired more paintings and drawings which they kept in their apartment in Montagu Square. Their collection was a mixture of gifts and of works purchased through Auerbach’s dealers the Marlborough Gallery. Perhaps Auerbach is responding to a letter of thanks when he wrote to Ruth in 1994.

"The greatest present is your constancy as a sitter, and your patience with my slow fumble towards an image."

Towards the end of the following year, Ruth wrote to Auerbach 
"How can I ever thank you enough for your great generosity in presenting me with this superb painting. No gift could give me greater pleasure. When I look at the glowing colours I feel cheered and happy. And I am also very happy when I am in the studio and see you paint. For me, that is my weekly gift throughout the year."

There is also a letter from Auerbach about the present work,

"Dear Ruth, I looked at your little painting yesterday, and it seemed to me to be finished... So I have arranged for it to be taken to the gallery - in a wet state - in two hours time, to rest there for a couple of months before being framed... See you Thursday!!"

After a creative partnership which lasted almost two decades, in March 2008, Ruth, then aged 88, wrote to say that she needed to resign her role:

"I know how important your sitters are to you and I would not wish to be the cause of disruption to your work schedule. I have always taken my sittings very seriously and with your best interests in mind, I am reluctant to take on a commitment that I might not be able to fulfil... My seventeen years as a sitter have been a source of the greatest pleasure and joy throughout... Thursday afternoons will never be the same again and I feel the loss....By some strange coincidence, both your first and last painting of me will be with me here in my home, as a constant source of pleasure along with all of your other great works."

Her resignation meant that the painting Ruth Bromberg Seated, 2007-8 , which, like the very first picture, Auerbach had given to the Brombergs was the last completed picture, its image, of her sitting on the right hand side of the frame, echoing an earlier painting made in 1997 (cat no.802).

This ‘little painting’ of Ruth is the smallest in the Bromberg’s collection and is also the smallest of the 20 pictures he painted of her. By the 2000s, Auerbach’s paint application is much thinner and his use of colour comes to the fore, as we see in this jewel-like palette. It is also the most close-up of the head studies and prefigures the framing of his 2006 etching.