Rare Auerbach Painting to lead Christie’s Upcoming Modern British And Irish Art Evening Sale

A woman of intellect and discerning taste, Campbell served in the top-secret Y-Service at Bletchley Park during the Second World War before leading a dynamic life in Edinburgh and London, and working for Count Robert-Jean de Vogüé, director of Moët et Chandon in France for many years.

The present work dates from Auerbach’s rise to acclaim under the visionary guidance of the London gallerist Helen Lessore, who unveiled the painting at her Beaux Arts Gallery the year after it was painted. Auerbach’s association with the gallery came about after Lessore visited an exhibition of graduate painters at the Royal College in the summer of 1955. She went on to build a strong reputation for the young artist, mounting his first solo exhibition in 1956, and annual exhibitions from 1957 through to 1964.  Purchased by Moyra Campbell at the 1962 exhibition, the present work has remained in the same collection ever since.  

Sculpted from thick swathes of impasto, Nude on Bed III emerges as a beacon of light from the deep, monochromatic tones of Auerbach’s Camden studio. Painted at the height of the School of London, the work exemplifies his distinctive approach to the female form and marks a pivotal moment in his career. During this period, his muses inspired a series of raw, powerfully intimate works that redefined figurative painting in post-war Britain. As London rebuilt itself from the ground up, a young generation of artists breathed new life into the medium. A photograph taken by John Deakin at Wheeler’s Restaurant in 1963 captures Auerbach alongside Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon - both of whom, like him, placed the reclining nude at the heart of their explorations of the human condition.

Nude on Bed III epitomises Auerbach’s ability to fuse subject and setting into a single, pulsating entity. Here, paint itself becomes a conduit for raw human presence, bearing witness to his commitment to capturing the sensibility of the human form. Within the stripped-down confines of his studio, Auerbach laboured through a painstaking process of painting, scraping away, and repainting, building dense, sculptural textures. These visceral layers lend the figure a luminous presence, as if unearthed from time itself. The hallmark monochromatic tones of his early palette allowed the female form to emerge in relief, subtly distinct from her surroundings.

Main Image: Frank Auerbach, Nude on Bed III, 1961 (estimate: £700,000 – 1,000,000)