Frank Auerbach: A Life Painted in Thick Emotion Born in Berlin in 1931, Frank Auerbach’s life was profoundly shaped by the tumultuous events of the early 20th century. His Jewish heritage and the rise of Nazism forced his family to flee Germany when he was just a child, seeking refuge in England. This experience – the loss of his parents during World War II and the subsequent childhood spent at a progressive boarding school in Kent – instilled within him a deep sense of melancholy and a raw emotionality that would become central to his artistic vision. Auerbach’s early years were marked by a…