Frank Auerbach
(b. 1931)
 

Frank Helmut Auerbach is a German-British painter. Born in Germany, he has been a naturalised British subject since 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of London, with fellow artists Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Auerbach

Euston Steps - Study
1908
Oil on board
122,6 x 152,7 cm
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London
https://artscouncilcollection.org.uk/artwork/euston-steps-study

'Euston Steps - Study' is one of a number of paintings made by Frank Auerbach in the train stations, building sites and streets around his studio in London's Camden Town. This is one of a series of paintings depicting the steps at Euston Station. While the word 'study' suggests that this is a preliminary experiment for a larger or more polished work, in fact this is a finished painting. The expressionist, thick impasto brushwork and the palette of browns, greens and oranges are typical of Auerbach's painting of this period. In both his portraits and landscapes, Auerbach has attempted to capture something deeper than what is immediately seen. He once described the difference between 'the sort of painter who is arranging things on a surface for their own sake and the sort of painter who has a permanent sense of the tangible world ... to make a true record, the experience has in some way to be digested and turned into the artist's gesture'.
Jacky Klein