Auerbach has always painted mainly landscapes and townscapes in the Camden Town area of London and portraits of a few close friends and relatives. This is a portrait of his cousin, Gerda Boehm. The extremely thick impasto paint is typical of Auerbach’s work. Although it has the appearance of accumulating over several months, the artist regularly scrapes off all the paint to start afresh. At first glance this small work appears abstract: the diagonal slices of jagged oil paint slowly emerge as a human face, tilted slightly to one side with downcast eyes.