Ruth II

Maker

(artist)
1931-2024

Title

Ruth II

Date of Production

1994

Medium

etching and aquatint printed in black and grey from two plates on wove Somerset paper

Dimensions

Height: 38.4 cm (Sheet)
Width: 32.4 cm (Sheet)

Accession Number

G.2024.SP.14

Mode of Acquisition

HM Government Cultural Gifts Scheme, 2024

Credit

Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from the archive of Studio Prints gifted by the Balakjian family and allocated to the Courtauld Gallery, 2024.

Copyright

Location

On display

Label Text

Ruth Bromberg was a print scholar and a close friend of Frank Auerbach, who portrayed her weekly over seventeen years. In Ruth II, following a suggestion by Marc Balakjian, Auerbach combined etching and aquatint for the first time, introducing areas of midtone into the linear surface. Printing from separate plates for black and grey ink expanded the expressive range of Auerbach’s printmaking. In the later Ruth 2006,, his largest plate to date, Auerbach retained the grid used to map and transfer the image from drawing to plate. Although Balakjian could have concealed it, Auerbach kept the rigid geometry to contrast the more exploratory lines of the portrait.

Provenance

Studio Prints, London; accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from the archive of Studio Prints gifted by the Balakjian family and allocated to The Courtauld, 2024.

Literature

Craig Hartley, Frank Auerbach: Etchings & Drypoints: 1954-2006 (Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, 2007)
cat. no. 24
pp. 9-10

Inscriptions

Verso, lower right, graphite: 'CGSA19'

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