Frank Auerbach, the celebrated British painter known for his richly textured portraits and cityscapes, died peacefully at his London home on Monday. He was 93.

The news was announced by Frankie Rossi Art Projects, a gallery specializing in post-war artists, where director Geoffrey Parton reflected that “his voice will resonate for generations to come.”

Auerbach’s journey to artistic prominence began in tragedy. Born in Berlin in 1931, he arrived in England in 1939 as one of six children sponsored by writer Iris Origo, fleeing Nazi persecution. His father, a patent lawyer, and mother, an artist, would later perish in a concentration camp in 1942. Years later, Auerbach spoke with remarkable composure about learning of their deaths, telling The Art Newspaper he was “at no point shocked or overwhelmed” as the news gradually reached him.

Finding refuge at Bunce Court, a Kent boarding school for Jewish refugee children, Auerbach went on to study at London’s St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art from 1948 to 1955. He then established himself in a North London studio in 1954, where he would work for the remainder of his life.

His distinctive artistic style emerged from an almost obsessive process of creation and destruction. Auerbach would repeatedly scrape away layers of paint, starting anew until achieving his vision, estimating that 95 percent of his materials ended up discarded. “I’m trying to find a new way to express something,” he once explained to The Guardian. “So I rehearse all the other ways until I surprise myself with something I haven’t previously considered.”

Over seven decades, his powerful portraits and North London scenes earned international recognition, culminating in the prestigious Golden Lion prize at the 1986 Venice Biennale. His work, characterized by heavily impastoed surfaces and emotional depth, helped define post-war British art.

Auerbach is survived by his son, filmmaker Jacob Auerbach, leaving behind a legacy that transformed the landscape of contemporary figurative painting.