One of Britain's most preeminent post-war artists, Frank Auerbach (b.1931) is renowned for his views of his locality (Camden) and for his intimate portraits of a select group of close friends and relatives, who have sat for him regularly over many years. He was born in Berlin, Germany in 1931, arriving in England in 1939. He went on to study at the Royal College of Art and has remained in London ever since. His paintings, drawings, and prints reveal an intense and laborious observation of the subject. His printed work is characterised by a busy energetic line, rigorously incised. He has been a prolific printmaker and his etchings, aquatints and drypoints demonstrate his ability to achieve a linear equivalent for the tactile surface of his paintings. This is one of a number of portraits of his wife Julia.