Frank Auerbach initially established his reputation in London in the 1950s when he was widely acknowledged as one of the most powerful young figurative painters.

He is often associated with the School of London, a circle of figurative painters that includes Michael Andrews, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Leon Kossoff and R.B.Kitaj.

In his handling of paint, Auerbach is one of the most inventive painters at work today and in his large-scale drawings he has invented an entirely new way of drawing and of reformulating the subject before him.

His main subjects are the people and places that he knows intimately.