Lucian Freud, who was close friends with Frank Auerbach and gave him the etchings over a number of years. Photograph: David Montgomery/Getty Images

London gallery says gift from artist is 'significant addition' to 20th-century collection

Frank Auerbach has donated nine etchings by his late friend Lucian Freud to the Courtauld Gallery in London, many of them inscribed with dedications.

The gallery said it was honoured to receive the etchings, which will be the first Freud works in its collection "and represent a significant addition to the gallery's expanding 20th-century holdings".

Auerbach, 81, and Freud, who died last year aged 88, were close friends and Freud gave him the prints over a number of years.

All produced in the 1980s and early 1990s, the works include a small head study of Freud's daughter Bella as well as large-scale male and female nudes, including one of his better-known etchings, Blond Girl, 1985.

They were made when Freud returned to etching with a renewed passion after a hiatus of many years. He once said he relished the "danger and mystery" of etching. "You don't know how it's going to come out. What's black is white. What's left is right."

The etchings will go on display at the Courtauld between 22 September and 13 January. To complement the gift the Garcia Family Foundation has also presented the gallery with Auerbach's etching of Lucian Freud which he produced in 1981.