For almost sixty years Auerbach has worked in the same
modest studio in north London with diligence and an almost monastic absorption.
Most of Auerbach’s models have been sitting for him for decades, and so his
oeuvre serves as an extended meditation on a select coterie of subjects. Reclining
Head of Julia II is a portrait of Auerbach’s wife, Julia, whom he married
in 1958, but split from soon after the birth of their son. However, after
nearly two decades of being apart, they reunited in 1976. Whilst she was the
subject of his earlier charcoal drawings, she only became a regular model for
his paintings after the reunion. From that point onwards, she remained a loyal
and intimate subject of the artist’s works, sitting for more portraits than any
other person in Auerbach’s life. Most of Auerbach’s sitters pose every week,
often over many years. He has said: “I find myself simply more engaged when I know
the people. They get older and change; there is something touching about that,
about recording something that’s getting on.”