The Living Room

Tate Gallery, London, the UK.

Canvas, oil.

In this painting, we can see the living room in the house of the constant model of the artist actress Stella West, where Auerbach came to paint the mistress even three times a week for many years. The central part of the canvas is occupied by a lamp with a high leg, which is the main source of light in the picture; you can see Stella and her daughter Julia in armchairs on both sides of it. The work was performed in a manner typical of Auerbach — a pasty-thick layer of paint and energetic strokes that mold the shape of figures and objects, as if from plasticine. The yellowish-ocher gamut of the picture and the author’s attention to various small objects in the interior speaks of the warm and friendly atmosphere that prevailed in this room.