Francis BACON 1963-70
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Top 10 Bacon Head triptych Self portrait The Man
Chronology : 20th century 1960-1969 1963 1964 1966 1969 1970
See also : Top 10 Bacon Head triptych Self portrait The Man
Chronology : 20th century 1960-1969 1963 1964 1966 1969 1970
Small Triptych
1
1963 George Dyer
2017 SOLD for $ 52M by Christie's
At the turn of the 1960s the art world is demanding changes. Abstraction has taken up too much space and cancels the psychological observation. Francis Bacon then enjoys the top level of fame to such an extent that his sado-masochistic impulses are reversed : after Peter Lacy's death, Francis desires to dominate a young male muse.
George Dyer meets Francis's desire. His massive body evokes the masculine nudes sculpted by Michelangelo. His shabby life as a petty thief innocent of art excites Francis who creates the unverifiable story of their first encounter in 1963 during a burglary in his studio. Francis sometimes nicknames 'Sir George' this magnificent lover.
George has a weak personality that he vainly tries to offset by tobacco, drugs and alcohol. The colossus with feet of clay becomes for Francis a subject of study of the human contradictions. As ever Francis seeks through his models the mirror of his own complexity.
Francis grabs his brushes to exercise his new artistic quest. A homogeneous background enables to vary the expression. His very first study for a portrait of George is a triptych of 35 x 30 cm elements displaying the head in life size, painted in 1963.
That first triptych includes the distortions that erase the age of the sitter by demeaning the features of the face. It was sold for $ 52M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 38 B.
Francis twists the nose and the cheeks and adds vivid colors to better reveal the tensions but the overall features remain perfectly superimposable to the photographs of George. On a black background and with no information on the garment, this triple head that comes out of the shadows with an empty gaze is one of the most profound testimonies by Bacon on the psychological misery of human beings.
The work's three oil-on-canvas panels (each 14x12 inches) depict Dyer's distorted face in raw flesh tones against black voids, drawing from John Deakin photographs to evoke emotional turmoil, a technique Bacon refined amid his rising fame in the early 1960s.
George Dyer's Influence on Francis BaconGeorge Dyer (1934–1971), a former petty criminal from London's East End, met Francis Bacon in late 1963 (likely through mutual Soho circles, though myths of a burglary persist). Their relationship—intense, volatile, passionate, and often destructive—lasted until Dyer's suicide by overdose in a Paris hotel bathroom on October 30, 1971, just two days before the opening of Bacon's major retrospective at the Grand Palais. Dyer became Bacon's greatest muse, appearing in dozens of paintings (over 40 documented works feature him directly or indirectly), far more than any other sitter. His physical presence (muscular build, angular features, craggy profile) and emotional complexity profoundly shaped Bacon's art, amplifying themes of vulnerability, mortality, desire, brutality, and the fragility of the human body.
During Their Relationship (1963–1971)
George Dyer meets Francis's desire. His massive body evokes the masculine nudes sculpted by Michelangelo. His shabby life as a petty thief innocent of art excites Francis who creates the unverifiable story of their first encounter in 1963 during a burglary in his studio. Francis sometimes nicknames 'Sir George' this magnificent lover.
George has a weak personality that he vainly tries to offset by tobacco, drugs and alcohol. The colossus with feet of clay becomes for Francis a subject of study of the human contradictions. As ever Francis seeks through his models the mirror of his own complexity.
Francis grabs his brushes to exercise his new artistic quest. A homogeneous background enables to vary the expression. His very first study for a portrait of George is a triptych of 35 x 30 cm elements displaying the head in life size, painted in 1963.
That first triptych includes the distortions that erase the age of the sitter by demeaning the features of the face. It was sold for $ 52M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 38 B.
Francis twists the nose and the cheeks and adds vivid colors to better reveal the tensions but the overall features remain perfectly superimposable to the photographs of George. On a black background and with no information on the garment, this triple head that comes out of the shadows with an empty gaze is one of the most profound testimonies by Bacon on the psychological misery of human beings.
The work's three oil-on-canvas panels (each 14x12 inches) depict Dyer's distorted face in raw flesh tones against black voids, drawing from John Deakin photographs to evoke emotional turmoil, a technique Bacon refined amid his rising fame in the early 1960s.
George Dyer's Influence on Francis BaconGeorge Dyer (1934–1971), a former petty criminal from London's East End, met Francis Bacon in late 1963 (likely through mutual Soho circles, though myths of a burglary persist). Their relationship—intense, volatile, passionate, and often destructive—lasted until Dyer's suicide by overdose in a Paris hotel bathroom on October 30, 1971, just two days before the opening of Bacon's major retrospective at the Grand Palais. Dyer became Bacon's greatest muse, appearing in dozens of paintings (over 40 documented works feature him directly or indirectly), far more than any other sitter. His physical presence (muscular build, angular features, craggy profile) and emotional complexity profoundly shaped Bacon's art, amplifying themes of vulnerability, mortality, desire, brutality, and the fragility of the human body.
During Their Relationship (1963–1971)
- Muse and Subject: Dyer provided Bacon with an ideal model for exploring raw human existence. Bacon painted him obsessively in single panels, diptychs, and triptychs, often using John Deakin's photographs as source material. Key early works include Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer (1963), initiating a cycle of monumental portraits from 1966–1968 (e.g., Portrait of George Dyer Riding a Bicycle 1966, Portrait of George Dyer Staring into a Mirror 1967). These depict Dyer as virile yet tormented—brooding, heroic, vulnerable—blending tenderness with distortion. Dyer's body became a vehicle for Bacon's fascination with flesh as material: twisted sinew, exposed muscle, screaming mouths, evoking existential anguish and erotic tension.
- Emotional Catalyst: The relationship's turbulence (alcohol-fueled arguments, Dyer's growing isolation and dependence) fueled Bacon's "brutality of fact." Dyer embodied contradictions—tough yet fragile, debonair yet self-destructive—mirroring Bacon's own masochistic tendencies and interest in human suffering. Works like Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror (1968) use reflection to symbolize duality: strength intertwined with a "death wish."
- Stylistic Impact: Dyer's recurring presence intensified Bacon's head studies and full-figure distortions, shifting from earlier friends (e.g., Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne) toward more personal, obsessive serial portrayals.
2
1964 George Dyer
2014 SOLD for £ 26.7M by Sotheby's
Francis is the most disturbing portrait maker of his time. His exegetes shall enjoy to compare the difference of empathy of the artist with respectively his lover and his friends. Painted in 1964, a triptych portrait of Lucian Freud was sold for £ 23M by Sotheby's on February 10, 2011.
In the same year, Francis made two new triptych portraits of George Dyer. One of them, on dark background, focuses the attention on the abnormal prominence of the jaw.
In 1964, two triptychs by Bacon on a light background express further George's banality and stupidity of the model. One of them was sold for £ 26.7M from a lower estimate of £ 15M by Sotheby's on June 30, 2014, lot 15.
With his hair tuft in the fashion of that time and his big nose, the man loved by Francis is decidedly not a playboy. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
In the same year, Francis made two new triptych portraits of George Dyer. One of them, on dark background, focuses the attention on the abnormal prominence of the jaw.
In 1964, two triptychs by Bacon on a light background express further George's banality and stupidity of the model. One of them was sold for £ 26.7M from a lower estimate of £ 15M by Sotheby's on June 30, 2014, lot 15.
With his hair tuft in the fashion of that time and his big nose, the man loved by Francis is decidedly not a playboy. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2014 X post by @ArtHitParade announces the £26.7 million Sotheby's sale of Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer," a rare 1964 triptych featuring the artist's lover and muse, marking its first appearance at auction.
- George Dyer, a former burglar who met Bacon in 1963, became the subject of over 30 works; this early triptych on light ground conveys Dyer's psychological intensity amid their turbulent relationship, which ended with his 1971 suicide.
- The record price highlighted Bacon's booming market in the mid-2010s, with the small-format piece exceeding estimates and signaling strong demand for his distorted, existential portraits among global collectors.
3
1966 George Dyer
2017 SOLD for $ 39M by Sotheby's
In his relationship with Peter, Francis Bacon had the role of the victim of a sadist. After Peter, his choice to love George is an experience with a younger man, stronger and more handsome than him. This connection with a thug without culture disturbs the friends of Francis, which adds to his pleasure.
George enters the intimacy of Francis without being involved in his intellectual community. Addicted to alcohol and tobacco and probably naive, he does not see the danger. Francis, who spoke a lot throughout his career, says to others : "Death is desire" or "You kill the thing you love".
The triptychs with front face and profiles in life size are a suitable format for Francis. In painting the portraits of his friends, he studies to what extent his own passions are out of range from any conventional ideal. The reason why Francis's art is fascinating is that he goes so far in introspection up to overcoming the bounds of decency.
On November 16, 2017, Sotheby's sold for $ 39M a triptych on a black background painted in 1966, lot 40 estimated $ 35M. In left and middle images, the crushed nose and the semi-spherical hollows of the orbits have killed any possibility of empathy.
In the same year in large format, George tries to discuss but his disarticulated and sticky body prevents communication. This Portrait of George Dyer Talking, 198 x 147 cm, was sold for £ 42M by Christie's in 2014.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Oct 28, 2017
#HBD #FrancisBacon! 'Three Studies of George Dyer' will be offered in #SothebysContemporary Evening on 16 November, exhibition opens 3 Nov.
George enters the intimacy of Francis without being involved in his intellectual community. Addicted to alcohol and tobacco and probably naive, he does not see the danger. Francis, who spoke a lot throughout his career, says to others : "Death is desire" or "You kill the thing you love".
The triptychs with front face and profiles in life size are a suitable format for Francis. In painting the portraits of his friends, he studies to what extent his own passions are out of range from any conventional ideal. The reason why Francis's art is fascinating is that he goes so far in introspection up to overcoming the bounds of decency.
On November 16, 2017, Sotheby's sold for $ 39M a triptych on a black background painted in 1966, lot 40 estimated $ 35M. In left and middle images, the crushed nose and the semi-spherical hollows of the orbits have killed any possibility of empathy.
In the same year in large format, George tries to discuss but his disarticulated and sticky body prevents communication. This Portrait of George Dyer Talking, 198 x 147 cm, was sold for £ 42M by Christie's in 2014.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Oct 28, 2017
#HBD #FrancisBacon! 'Three Studies of George Dyer' will be offered in #SothebysContemporary Evening on 16 November, exhibition opens 3 Nov.
- Sotheby's 2017 tweet celebrates Francis Bacon's birthday by promoting his 1966 triptych "Three Studies of George Dyer," a rare oil-on-canvas work depicting his lover and muse in three distorted, expressive profiles, as shown in the accompanying framed image.
- The painting, unseen publicly for 50 years, highlights Bacon's raw style exploring human vulnerability, with George Dyer's suicide five years later influencing Bacon's later oeuvre focused on grief and memory.
- Auctioned November 16, 2017, it fetched $36.8 million—among Bacon's top sales—underscoring the market's enduring demand for his psychologically intense portraits, per Sotheby's records.
1963 Henrietta Moraes
2015 SOLD for $ 48M by Christie's
A portrait of Henrietta Moraes by Francis Bacon was sold by Christie's for £ 21.3M on February 14, 2012 and for $ 48M on May 13, 2015, lot 23B.
They were not only boys in Soho drinking clubs. Francis Bacon looks at the girls although he is not sexually concerned with them.
They do not sit in his studio. He requires the photos by John Deakin to prepare the paintings of these friends but it is his usual practice for males or females, in close up faces or full length in the nude.
His two muses are Muriel Belcher and Henrietta Moraes. A painting made in 1961, showing one of them or a mixing of both, was sold for £ 8.3M by Sotheby's on 29 June 2011. That woman looked like a crouching piece of meat.
The figure of Henrietta coming for sale is an oil on canvas 165 x 142 cm painted in 1963. Perhaps in an effort to feature heterosexuality, the artist displays the woman naked on a bed with a pillow.
Henrietta, 33 years old, is not a monster. Francis appreciated that fact and this painting in lavish colors is a rare example of female eroticism in his art.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
They were not only boys in Soho drinking clubs. Francis Bacon looks at the girls although he is not sexually concerned with them.
They do not sit in his studio. He requires the photos by John Deakin to prepare the paintings of these friends but it is his usual practice for males or females, in close up faces or full length in the nude.
His two muses are Muriel Belcher and Henrietta Moraes. A painting made in 1961, showing one of them or a mixing of both, was sold for £ 8.3M by Sotheby's on 29 June 2011. That woman looked like a crouching piece of meat.
The figure of Henrietta coming for sale is an oil on canvas 165 x 142 cm painted in 1963. Perhaps in an effort to feature heterosexuality, the artist displays the woman naked on a bed with a pillow.
Henrietta, 33 years old, is not a monster. Francis appreciated that fact and this painting in lavish colors is a rare example of female eroticism in his art.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2015 X post by @ArtHitParade reports the $47.8 million sale of Francis Bacon's 1963 oil painting Portrait of Henrietta Moraes at Christie's New York, highlighting the artwork's rapid value appreciation from its prior £21.3 million auction in 2012.
- The canvas depicts Bacon's muse Henrietta Moraes, a bohemian socialite and model also painted by Lucian Freud, in a rare, sensual female nude rendered from a John Deakin photograph, with distorted features and swirling brushstrokes evoking movement against a lilac-red ground.
- Bacon produced few female figures, making this seductive, odalisque-like portrayal exceptional in his oeuvre, which typically focused on male subjects and existential distortion, contributing to its status as a market standout for post-war British art.
1964 Lucian Freud
2022 SOLD for £ 43M by Sotheby's
In and around Soho's pubs and clubs, eccentric people tried to have a life of pleasures. They included poets, writers, musicians and of course artists led by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach. John Deakin was their portrait photographer from inside the gang.
Francis did not accept other people when he was working, until a very late exception for John Edwards. Desiring to reveal the tortuous psyche of his fellows, he relied on Deakin's photos.
Lucian could not escape to be included in that weird pantheon. Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud, oil on canvas 198 x 148 cm painted in 1964, was sold for £ 43M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2022, lot 10. This artwork was originally the central part of a large triptych broken after a traveling exhibition in 1965 and went out of view afterward. The side panels are still extant.
The model is a photo by Deakin featuring Lucian seated on a bed, the arms outstretched behind him with both fists on the blanket.
On Francis's picture, the bed is replaced by a green bench, the most chilly color that Francis could find for expressing his deep aversion for his friends, often used in period around the distorted figures of Henrietta, Muriel and the late Peter.
There is a sharp contrast between the rotten head in thick green, pink and white and the realistic drawing of the rest of the body. The sleeves are rolled up over the elbows. Francis opened the shirt over Lucian's nude chest, increasing the impression of his friend as a brawler as he was in real life.
On February 10, 2011, Sotheby's sold for £ 23M a small triptych portrait of Lucian Freud by Bacon, 35 cm high, also painted in 1964.
Francis Bacon went deep into the artistic study of confusion between human beings. Indeed Picasso did it before him, drawing in a single face the lines of loved women. When he mixes himself with one of his companions, Francis reaches an extreme level of questioning the mankind.
On June 27, 2012, Christie's sold for £ 21.5M a Study for a self-portrait painted in 1964 by Francis Bacon, 152 x 140 cm, lot 25. A man sits in an empty room. The analysis of this painting by the auction house shows that the head, very distorted, belongs to Francis as suggested by the title. The rest of the body displays the more massive features of Lucian Freud, from a photograph by John Deakin. This surprising discovery is all the more plausible because 1964 was a very good year for the relations between the two artists.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Francis Bacon's "Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud" (1964) stands as a cornerstone in his oeuvre, encapsulating the profound artistic and personal dialogue between two titans of 20th-century British painting during a zenith of Bacon's creative output. Executed in oil on canvas (198 x 147.5 cm), the work originated as the central panel of an intended triptych depicting his close friend and rival Lucian Freud, based on black-and-white photographs commissioned from their mutual associate John Deakin. It portrays Freud bare-chested in a dynamic, confrontational pose—fists clenched, body leaning forward aggressively, with his head swiveled sideways—rendered through Bacon's signature distortions, frenetic brushwork in emerald-green, pink, and white tones, and visceral evocations of movement and psychological tension. This piece exemplifies Bacon's mature style in the 1960s, a period of heightened confidence following his 1962 Tate retrospective, where he channeled existential themes of human vulnerability, power dynamics, and emotional rawness through exaggerated forms and "whiplash" energy, bridging post-war figurative expressionism with modernist innovation.
As part of Bacon's extensive series on Freud—comprising at least 16 portraits from 1951 onward, including iconic triptychs like "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" (1969)—this study highlights the obsessive, reciprocal scrutiny that defined their 40-year relationship, marked by daily Soho interactions, mutual inspiration, and eventual acrimonious fallout in the 1980s. Freud, grandson of Sigmund Freud and a refugee from Nazi Germany, mirrored Bacon's outsider status (as a gay Irish expatriate), and their bond fueled Bacon's exploration of the human figure's psychological depths; Freud even painted Bacon in return, though less prolifically. The triptych was briefly exhibited intact in a 1965 traveling show to Hamburg and Stockholm's Moderna Museet, but the panels were separated thereafter—the left in private hands, the right at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem—making this central panel a rare, standalone testament to Bacon's thematic preoccupations with friendship, rivalry, and the body's expressive potential. Its creation amid Bacon's international acclaim solidified his legacy as a master of distorted portraiture, influencing subsequent self-portraits and reinforcing his impact on existential art.
The painting's 2022 reemergence after 57 years out of public view underscored its market and cultural resonance, selling at Sotheby's London "British Art: The Jubilee Auction" on June 29 (lot 10) for £43,336,000 (hammer £37,500,000), exceeding estimates of over £35 million.
Francis did not accept other people when he was working, until a very late exception for John Edwards. Desiring to reveal the tortuous psyche of his fellows, he relied on Deakin's photos.
Lucian could not escape to be included in that weird pantheon. Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud, oil on canvas 198 x 148 cm painted in 1964, was sold for £ 43M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2022, lot 10. This artwork was originally the central part of a large triptych broken after a traveling exhibition in 1965 and went out of view afterward. The side panels are still extant.
The model is a photo by Deakin featuring Lucian seated on a bed, the arms outstretched behind him with both fists on the blanket.
On Francis's picture, the bed is replaced by a green bench, the most chilly color that Francis could find for expressing his deep aversion for his friends, often used in period around the distorted figures of Henrietta, Muriel and the late Peter.
There is a sharp contrast between the rotten head in thick green, pink and white and the realistic drawing of the rest of the body. The sleeves are rolled up over the elbows. Francis opened the shirt over Lucian's nude chest, increasing the impression of his friend as a brawler as he was in real life.
On February 10, 2011, Sotheby's sold for £ 23M a small triptych portrait of Lucian Freud by Bacon, 35 cm high, also painted in 1964.
Francis Bacon went deep into the artistic study of confusion between human beings. Indeed Picasso did it before him, drawing in a single face the lines of loved women. When he mixes himself with one of his companions, Francis reaches an extreme level of questioning the mankind.
On June 27, 2012, Christie's sold for £ 21.5M a Study for a self-portrait painted in 1964 by Francis Bacon, 152 x 140 cm, lot 25. A man sits in an empty room. The analysis of this painting by the auction house shows that the head, very distorted, belongs to Francis as suggested by the title. The rest of the body displays the more massive features of Lucian Freud, from a photograph by John Deakin. This surprising discovery is all the more plausible because 1964 was a very good year for the relations between the two artists.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Francis Bacon's "Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud" (1964) stands as a cornerstone in his oeuvre, encapsulating the profound artistic and personal dialogue between two titans of 20th-century British painting during a zenith of Bacon's creative output. Executed in oil on canvas (198 x 147.5 cm), the work originated as the central panel of an intended triptych depicting his close friend and rival Lucian Freud, based on black-and-white photographs commissioned from their mutual associate John Deakin. It portrays Freud bare-chested in a dynamic, confrontational pose—fists clenched, body leaning forward aggressively, with his head swiveled sideways—rendered through Bacon's signature distortions, frenetic brushwork in emerald-green, pink, and white tones, and visceral evocations of movement and psychological tension. This piece exemplifies Bacon's mature style in the 1960s, a period of heightened confidence following his 1962 Tate retrospective, where he channeled existential themes of human vulnerability, power dynamics, and emotional rawness through exaggerated forms and "whiplash" energy, bridging post-war figurative expressionism with modernist innovation.
As part of Bacon's extensive series on Freud—comprising at least 16 portraits from 1951 onward, including iconic triptychs like "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" (1969)—this study highlights the obsessive, reciprocal scrutiny that defined their 40-year relationship, marked by daily Soho interactions, mutual inspiration, and eventual acrimonious fallout in the 1980s. Freud, grandson of Sigmund Freud and a refugee from Nazi Germany, mirrored Bacon's outsider status (as a gay Irish expatriate), and their bond fueled Bacon's exploration of the human figure's psychological depths; Freud even painted Bacon in return, though less prolifically. The triptych was briefly exhibited intact in a 1965 traveling show to Hamburg and Stockholm's Moderna Museet, but the panels were separated thereafter—the left in private hands, the right at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem—making this central panel a rare, standalone testament to Bacon's thematic preoccupations with friendship, rivalry, and the body's expressive potential. Its creation amid Bacon's international acclaim solidified his legacy as a master of distorted portraiture, influencing subsequent self-portraits and reinforcing his impact on existential art.
The painting's 2022 reemergence after 57 years out of public view underscored its market and cultural resonance, selling at Sotheby's London "British Art: The Jubilee Auction" on June 29 (lot 10) for £43,336,000 (hammer £37,500,000), exceeding estimates of over £35 million.
1966 Portrait of George Dyer Talking
2014 SOLD for £ 42M by Christie's
The sentimental history of Francis Bacon is complex. Dominated by the sadistic Peter, he himself went to be abusive to George Dyer. Their alcohol addictions are not unrelated with this apparent contradiction.
The painting of portraits in large size does not bring the impossible key to the temperament of Francis but enables to track his attempts of communication in life and beyond. He invariably used photos by John Deakin to make recognizable some personal elements of his models within the pictorial distorsions of heads and bodies.
In 1962, just after the death of Peter in a drinking party, Francis painted Study for Portrait of PL, oil on canvas 198 x 145 cm. The man comfortably seated cross-legged on a sofa is discussing post-mortem while holding a glass of wine. This painting passed at Sotheby's on May 14, 2013.
From 1966 to 1968 Francis Bacon created ten large size unsympathetic portraits of the handsome George Dyer in the nude.
The first opus in the series is titled Portrait of George Dyer Crouching in the reverse and dated 1966. The title suggests a bestial action.
Francis's lover is crouching on the edge a coffee table that looks like a diving board locked up in a circular sofa. He looks down at his discarded shirt on the seat. His setting provides a much vulnerable impression in contradiction with the hyper-muscular strength, anticipating his demise. This position may have been inspired from a Crouching boy sculpted by Michelangelo.
This oil on canvas 198 x 147 cm was sold for $ 28M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2024, lot 115. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
On February 13, 2014, Christie's sold for £ 42M from a lower estimate of £ 30M the Portrait of George Dyer Talking, so titled on the reverse and dated 1966, painted in same dimensions 198 x 147 cm, lot 10. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The huge body of the boxer, naked, is writhing on a tiny stool. He communicates with a crooked mouth and an inexpressive gaze. Papers on the rug provide a link to an interlocutor out of the field. The physical strength of the body is balanced with the apparent size of the empty room looking enlarged like through a fish eye lens.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Feb 13, 2014
Francis Bacon's celebrated 'Portrait of George Dyer Talking' has just sold for £42,194,500 @ChristiesInc London
The painting of portraits in large size does not bring the impossible key to the temperament of Francis but enables to track his attempts of communication in life and beyond. He invariably used photos by John Deakin to make recognizable some personal elements of his models within the pictorial distorsions of heads and bodies.
In 1962, just after the death of Peter in a drinking party, Francis painted Study for Portrait of PL, oil on canvas 198 x 145 cm. The man comfortably seated cross-legged on a sofa is discussing post-mortem while holding a glass of wine. This painting passed at Sotheby's on May 14, 2013.
From 1966 to 1968 Francis Bacon created ten large size unsympathetic portraits of the handsome George Dyer in the nude.
The first opus in the series is titled Portrait of George Dyer Crouching in the reverse and dated 1966. The title suggests a bestial action.
Francis's lover is crouching on the edge a coffee table that looks like a diving board locked up in a circular sofa. He looks down at his discarded shirt on the seat. His setting provides a much vulnerable impression in contradiction with the hyper-muscular strength, anticipating his demise. This position may have been inspired from a Crouching boy sculpted by Michelangelo.
This oil on canvas 198 x 147 cm was sold for $ 28M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2024, lot 115. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
On February 13, 2014, Christie's sold for £ 42M from a lower estimate of £ 30M the Portrait of George Dyer Talking, so titled on the reverse and dated 1966, painted in same dimensions 198 x 147 cm, lot 10. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The huge body of the boxer, naked, is writhing on a tiny stool. He communicates with a crooked mouth and an inexpressive gaze. Papers on the rug provide a link to an interlocutor out of the field. The physical strength of the body is balanced with the apparent size of the empty room looking enlarged like through a fish eye lens.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Feb 13, 2014
Francis Bacon's celebrated 'Portrait of George Dyer Talking' has just sold for £42,194,500 @ChristiesInc London
- This 2014 X post by Christie's announces the £42.2 million for Francis Bacon's 1966 oil painting "Portrait of George Dyer Talking," a distorted depiction of his lover and muse George Dyer seated in a surreal purple room, sourced from a Swiss collection with provenance to Marlborough Fine Art.
- George Dyer, a former burglar who became Bacon's companion after a 1963 break-in, inspired this work from an 11-painting series exploring human fragility and spatial distortion; Dyer's 1971 suicide profoundly influenced Bacon's later "black triptychs" as memorials.
- The sale, part of Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction, highlighted surging demand for Bacon's oeuvre amid a mid-2010s market boom, with the lot exceeding expectations and contributing to robust totals for British post-war art.
1969 Three Studies of Lucian Freud
2013 SOLD for $ 142M by Christie's
As early as 1944, the triptych is the favorite medium of Bacon. The three perspectives cancel the plane of the canvas to provide to the viewer the mental illusion of a three-dimensional space.
Heads in small sizes often come to auction, but larger works are exceptional. On November 12, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 142M Three Studies of Lucian Freud, three oils on canvas painted in 1969, 198 x 148 cm for each element. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The two artists have been friends for nearly a quarter of century. Francis is in his George Dyer period and his appeal to Lucian has no reason to be erotic. Always looking for a total empathy with his entourage, Bacon pays tribute to a rival whom he admires. The seating position is gentle, but the colors and deformities of the face express the passions, in front of a strident yellow background.
Bacon locked Freud in a threadlike prism, similar to a squaring but proving his intent of the three-dimensional nature of the triptych. This desire to control his friend is fictional and symbolic because Bacon, as almost every time, worked this triple portrait from photos made by John Deakin.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Apr 2, 2020
#ThrowbackThursday For almost 30 years, artists #FrancisBacon and #LucianFreud were near-inseparable companions - friends, foils & confidants, they painted each other & pushed each other’s art to new heights. Francis Bacon, 'Three Studies of Lucian Freud’, 1969.
Heads in small sizes often come to auction, but larger works are exceptional. On November 12, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 142M Three Studies of Lucian Freud, three oils on canvas painted in 1969, 198 x 148 cm for each element. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The two artists have been friends for nearly a quarter of century. Francis is in his George Dyer period and his appeal to Lucian has no reason to be erotic. Always looking for a total empathy with his entourage, Bacon pays tribute to a rival whom he admires. The seating position is gentle, but the colors and deformities of the face express the passions, in front of a strident yellow background.
Bacon locked Freud in a threadlike prism, similar to a squaring but proving his intent of the three-dimensional nature of the triptych. This desire to control his friend is fictional and symbolic because Bacon, as almost every time, worked this triple portrait from photos made by John Deakin.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Apr 2, 2020
#ThrowbackThursday For almost 30 years, artists #FrancisBacon and #LucianFreud were near-inseparable companions - friends, foils & confidants, they painted each other & pushed each other’s art to new heights. Francis Bacon, 'Three Studies of Lucian Freud’, 1969.
- The artwork "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" (1969) by Francis Bacon, featured in the post, sold for $142.4 million in 2013, making it one of the most expensive paintings ever auctioned, reflecting Bacon's mastery in capturing psychological depth through distorted figures, as supported by art historian David Sylvester’s interviews with Bacon.
- Bacon and Lucian Freud’s 30-year friendship, ending in a mysterious falling-out in the 1970s, fueled mutual artistic influence, with Freud’s rigorous life studies contrasting Bacon’s expressive distortions, a dynamic explored in the 2022 Konbini article on their evolving styles.
- The triptych format echoes Bacon’s fascination with movement and isolation, possibly influenced by his wartime experiences and Eadweard Muybridge’s motion studies, offering a visual narrative of Freud that challenges traditional portraiture conventions.
1969 Study for Bullfight
2007 SOLD for $ 46M by Sotheby's
Life is a struggle that must include risks. Michel Leiris is looking for a ritual to explain his conception of literature. He finds bullfighting, this game in public between man and beast of which one of them will die. In 1938 he publishes an essay titled Miroir de la Tauromachie.
Francis Bacon, existentialist artist, was familiar with the work of Leiris, famous for his reciprocal influence with Sartre. In 1966 Leiris presented to Bacon a copy of his Miroir. Bacon sees in it a new theme for his art, with a sexual allusion in the physical rapprochement between man and bull. He finds photos in the memory book of the matador Antonio Ordóñez.
In 1969 Bacon prepares canvases 200 x 148 cm, probably for the project of a triptych. Two versions, Study for Bullfight No. 1 and No. 2, show the instant action when the bull passes the matador's cape. The arena is a circular area without background, with a tall concave screen in which the artist installs the crowd of spectators.
The sexual excitement is not achieved in these realistic images. His Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1 displays two major modifications. The screen is now empty, accentuating the intimacy of the two protagonists of the action. In the foreground, a spermatozoid is disproportionately enlarged, and released from a human shadow on which it had been placed.
Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1 was sold for $ 46M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2007, lot 29.
As far as bullfight is concerned, Bacon is neither Hemingway nor Picasso. He probably appreciates that it is illusory to go forward on this theme with his too limited experience of corridas. His torero with a blackened face cannot appeal the aficionados. He will not execute the triptych.
Asking Grok for Bacon's bullfight series analysis :
Francis Bacon’s Bullfight Series (1960s–1990s): A Focused Analysis
Francis Bacon produced a relatively small but intensely powerful group of paintings centered on the theme of the Spanish bullfight, primarily between 1962 and 1969, with a few later returns in the 1980s and 1990s. The key works are:
Francis Bacon, existentialist artist, was familiar with the work of Leiris, famous for his reciprocal influence with Sartre. In 1966 Leiris presented to Bacon a copy of his Miroir. Bacon sees in it a new theme for his art, with a sexual allusion in the physical rapprochement between man and bull. He finds photos in the memory book of the matador Antonio Ordóñez.
In 1969 Bacon prepares canvases 200 x 148 cm, probably for the project of a triptych. Two versions, Study for Bullfight No. 1 and No. 2, show the instant action when the bull passes the matador's cape. The arena is a circular area without background, with a tall concave screen in which the artist installs the crowd of spectators.
The sexual excitement is not achieved in these realistic images. His Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1 displays two major modifications. The screen is now empty, accentuating the intimacy of the two protagonists of the action. In the foreground, a spermatozoid is disproportionately enlarged, and released from a human shadow on which it had been placed.
Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1 was sold for $ 46M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2007, lot 29.
As far as bullfight is concerned, Bacon is neither Hemingway nor Picasso. He probably appreciates that it is illusory to go forward on this theme with his too limited experience of corridas. His torero with a blackened face cannot appeal the aficionados. He will not execute the triptych.
Asking Grok for Bacon's bullfight series analysis :
Francis Bacon’s Bullfight Series (1960s–1990s): A Focused Analysis
Francis Bacon produced a relatively small but intensely powerful group of paintings centered on the theme of the Spanish bullfight, primarily between 1962 and 1969, with a few later returns in the 1980s and 1990s. The key works are:
- Study for Bullfight No. 1 (1969) – the most famous, often considered the pinnacle
- Study for Bullfight No. 2 (1969)
- Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1 (1969)
- Bullfight-related triptychs and single panels from 1962, 1967, 1987, etc.
- Death and the Arena as Metaphor for Existence
Bacon saw the bullring as the ultimate theatre of mortality: two living creatures enter, one must die. He repeatedly described it as “a metaphor for life.” The circular arena becomes a microcosm of the human condition—isolated figures locked in a ritual of violence and inevitable death. - Erotic Charge and Homoerotic Undertow
The confrontation between matador and bull is heavily sexualized in Bacon’s handling. The matador’s elegant, almost balletic pose contrasts with the brute power of the bull, creating a tension that many critics read as homoerotic (especially given Bacon’s own sexuality and his fascination with butch, masculine types). - Blurring of Victim and Victor
In Bacon’s versions, it is never entirely clear who is killing whom. The matador and bull often merge into a single smeared, screaming form. This ambiguity reflects Bacon’s belief that in any act of violence, both parties are destroyed.
- Extreme distortion and motion blur derived from Eadweard Muybridge’s photographs of bulls and from cinema stills (especially Eisenstein and Buñuel).
- Use of a stark, circular arena (often orange or blood-red) that functions like the “space-frames” in his earlier crucifixions and popes—devices to trap and isolate the figure.
- Splattered paint, raw canvas areas, and thick impasto to evoke flesh, blood, and sand simultaneously.
- Mirrors and reflective surfaces in some versions (e.g., 1969 No. 2) that double and fragment the scene, heightening disorientation.
- Study for Bullfight No. 1 (1969) – Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
The definitive image: a lone matador in white, twisted in a scream, standing over a dark, blurred bull on an orange ground. A black swastika-like form (actually the shadow of the arena entrance) looms overhead. Many see this as Bacon’s single most powerful statement on human isolation and impending annihilation. - Study for Bullfight No. 2 (1969)
Introduces spectators in the background—ghostly, smeared faces behind glass—turning the arena into a kind of existential fishbowl. - Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1 (1969)
Darker, bloodier, more abstract. The bull is almost completely dissolved into black and red streaks.
- Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus (1981) contains a central panel with clear bullfight references.
- Bull (1992, private collection) – one of Bacon’s very last paintings, a solitary black bull against raw canvas, almost minimalist.
- Picasso’s bullfight sketches and Guernica (Bacon owned photographs of both).
- Spanish culture (Bacon spent time in Málaga and was obsessed with Spain’s “sense of death”).
- Nietzsche’s reading of Greek tragedy and the bullfight as Dionysian ritual.
- Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon (which Bacon read closely).
1969 Self Portrait for Valerie Beston
2023 SOLD for $ 34.6M by Christie's
Francis Bacon was not an easy fellow. Around 1969 he got bored of his Soho friends and arguably also of his lover George. The self portrait becomes a leading theme in his art.
Valerie Beston was a partner to Francis in London in business and in social life. She was overseeing his affairs at the Marlborough Gallery since 1958. Francis prepares for her use a self portrait in bright impastos in the format of his head triptych elements. The slightly bent head is careful and the hairstyle is clean. He is indeed socially acceptable and even tender behind his distorted nose and mouth.
This oil on canvas 36 x 30 cm painted in 1969 is dedicated "to V with all very best wishes, Francis". It had been exhibited in 1971 in the cornerstone solo exhibition at the Grand Palais where Valerie assisted him. Valerie kept it throughout her life. It was sold for $ 34.6M from a lower estimate of $ 22M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 5A.
Coming from the Newhouse collection, it was hung therein as a pendant with a Study of Henrietta Moraes laughing, oil on canvas of same size and same year, sold for $ 21.7M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 6C.
Asking Grok to define significance in the artist's career.
Grok thought :
The painting Self-Portrait (1969) by Francis Bacon, sold as lot 5A at Christie's London on 11 May 2023 for £34.8 million (with fees), was originally commissioned by (and belonged to) Valerie Beston, who was Bacon’s gallerist at Marlborough Fine Art from the early 1960s until his death in 1992. Its sale was one of the highlights of the 20th/21st Century evening sale that season and set a new auction record for a 1960s Bacon self-portrait.
Significance in Francis Bacon’s career
Valerie Beston was a partner to Francis in London in business and in social life. She was overseeing his affairs at the Marlborough Gallery since 1958. Francis prepares for her use a self portrait in bright impastos in the format of his head triptych elements. The slightly bent head is careful and the hairstyle is clean. He is indeed socially acceptable and even tender behind his distorted nose and mouth.
This oil on canvas 36 x 30 cm painted in 1969 is dedicated "to V with all very best wishes, Francis". It had been exhibited in 1971 in the cornerstone solo exhibition at the Grand Palais where Valerie assisted him. Valerie kept it throughout her life. It was sold for $ 34.6M from a lower estimate of $ 22M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 5A.
Coming from the Newhouse collection, it was hung therein as a pendant with a Study of Henrietta Moraes laughing, oil on canvas of same size and same year, sold for $ 21.7M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 6C.
Asking Grok to define significance in the artist's career.
Grok thought :
The painting Self-Portrait (1969) by Francis Bacon, sold as lot 5A at Christie's London on 11 May 2023 for £34.8 million (with fees), was originally commissioned by (and belonged to) Valerie Beston, who was Bacon’s gallerist at Marlborough Fine Art from the early 1960s until his death in 1992. Its sale was one of the highlights of the 20th/21st Century evening sale that season and set a new auction record for a 1960s Bacon self-portrait.
Significance in Francis Bacon’s career
- Peak period of the late 1960s
Painted in 1969, this work belongs to what is widely regarded as Bacon’s strongest and most confident decade (roughly 1963–1972). During these years he refined his mature style: isolated figures in claustrophobic architectural cages, extremely fluid and expressive brushwork, and an almost violent psychological intensity. The 1969 self-portraits are among the most accomplished of his entire self-portrait series. - One of the most intimate and direct self-portraits
Unlike many of Bacon’s earlier self-portraits that are heavily distorted or partially obscured, the 1969 canvas (35.5 × 30.5 cm) presents a relatively frontal, legible face. The features are still twisted and smeared, but the sitter is unmistakably Bacon himself. Critics and scholars (e.g., Martin Harrison in the 2016 catalogue raisonné) consider it one of the most revealing and psychologically raw self-images he ever painted. - Personal context and Valerie Beston
Valerie Beston was not just Bacon’s dealer; she was one of his closest confidantes and effectively managed his daily life and finances for three decades. The fact that Bacon painted this self-portrait specifically for her (one of only a handful of works he ever gave away rather than sold) gives it an exceptional biographical importance. It was kept in her private collection until her death in 2019 and had never appeared on the market before 2023. - Rarity of small-format self-portraits from this exact moment
Bacon painted approximately 45 self-portraits in his career, but only a very small number are on the intimate 35–40 cm canvas size from 1969–1971. Of these, the Beston picture is considered the finest in private hands (the only comparable one is in the National Museum Wales, Cardiff). - Market validation of the late-1960s canon
The £34.8 million result in 2023 confirmed that the very best works from Bacon’s 1963–1971 “golden period” are now firmly in the £30–60 million bracket at auction, placing them among the most expensive post-war European paintings ever sold.
- technical and expressive mastery at the absolute height of Bacon’s powers,
- exceptional personal history (painted for his most trusted friend and never sold in his lifetime),
- extreme rarity within the already scarce group of late-1960s small self-portraits,
- and critical consensus that it is one of the most powerful self-images Bacon ever produced.
1970 Self Portrait Diptych
2016 SOLD for $ 35M by Sotheby's
In 1970 Francis Bacon is desperately seeking a solution to his equation of time. He paints less and less because his old themes are no longer acceptable to him. He executes a self-portrait in diptych 35 x 30 cm per element. His attire is relaxed but the position of the head is haughty : Francis is alone in front of himself. The exuberant expressionist colors accentuate the total control of his art.
Titled Two studies for a self portrait, this work was sold for $ 35M from a lower estimate of $ 22M by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The optimistic interpretation made by Sotheby's may be questioned but their conclusion that it is the finest self-portrait by Francis Bacon is highly acceptable.
The 1970 diptych self-portrait by Francis Bacon refers to Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (1970), an oil on canvas diptych (two panels, each approximately 35.5 × 30.5 cm / 14 × 12 in., overall format similar to his small head studies). This work was painted in 1970, just before the major 1971 Grand Palais retrospective in Paris and the tragic suicide of George Dyer.It sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2016 (Contemporary Art Evening Auction) for around $30 million (achieving strong results within its $22–30 million pre-sale estimate; it had been in the same private collection since acquisition shortly after creation). Described by Sotheby's and critics as one of Bacon's finest and rarest self-portraits, it captures a notably "elated" or optimistic expression—uncommon in his oeuvre—showing the artist in a moment of relative confidence and vitality before the wave of personal losses in the 1970s.
Composition
Titled Two studies for a self portrait, this work was sold for $ 35M from a lower estimate of $ 22M by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The optimistic interpretation made by Sotheby's may be questioned but their conclusion that it is the finest self-portrait by Francis Bacon is highly acceptable.
The 1970 diptych self-portrait by Francis Bacon refers to Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (1970), an oil on canvas diptych (two panels, each approximately 35.5 × 30.5 cm / 14 × 12 in., overall format similar to his small head studies). This work was painted in 1970, just before the major 1971 Grand Palais retrospective in Paris and the tragic suicide of George Dyer.It sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2016 (Contemporary Art Evening Auction) for around $30 million (achieving strong results within its $22–30 million pre-sale estimate; it had been in the same private collection since acquisition shortly after creation). Described by Sotheby's and critics as one of Bacon's finest and rarest self-portraits, it captures a notably "elated" or optimistic expression—uncommon in his oeuvre—showing the artist in a moment of relative confidence and vitality before the wave of personal losses in the 1970s.
Composition
- Format: Diptych (two adjacent panels), each a tightly cropped head study presenting different angles or expressions of the same face. This allows a subtle sense of movement or duality—almost like sequential views or mirrored aspects—without the full fragmentation of his triptychs. The panels are small and intimate, forcing close confrontation with the distorted features.
- Background and framing: Neutral/dark grounds typical of Bacon's head studies, with minimal spatial cues; the focus remains locked on the face(s), emphasizing isolation and psychological intensity. No overt symbolic elements (e.g., no wristwatch as in 1973 self-portraits) dominate here.
- Vigorous, fleshy brushwork with swirling distortions of skin, bone, and sinew; smeared paint creates a visceral, almost sculptural materiality.
- The face(s) emerge from chaotic application—deep-set eyes, twisted mouth, contorted features—yet with an unusual lightness or buoyancy in expression compared to later works.
- Colors lean toward pale flesh tones against darker surrounds, with energetic impasto and blending that conveys raw emotion over literal likeness.
- Vs. the 1969 Self-Portraits (e.g., the Sotheby's 2007 $33M one and the Christie's 2023 $34.6M Valerie Beston-dedicated one): Those are single-panel, small-scale heads with swirling, bone-like distortions and haunting eyes on neutral grounds—intimate and confrontational. The 1970 diptych expands this by doubling the view (two panels for varied expressions/angles), introducing a rare dialogic or comparative element. Compositionally more dynamic than the contained 1969 singles, yet shares the same tight cropping, visceral technique, and pre-tragedy energy. Stylistically, the 1970 work feels slightly more "elated" and assured, less aggressively anguished than some 1969 examples.
- Vs. Early 1970s single self-portraits (e.g., Self-Portrait 1970 single version or Self-Portrait 1972/1973): Post-Dyer works grow more introspective/melancholic—bruised features, emptied gazes, symbolic additions like wristwatches (1973) for mortality/time. The 1970 diptych predates this shift, retaining 1960s vitality while experimenting with multi-panel format (rare for Bacon self-portraits; he favored triptychs for figures or narratives). Its optimism contrasts sharply with the grief-laden tone of 1972–73 pieces.
- Vs. Later 1970s triptych self-portraits (e.g., Three Studies for a Self-Portrait 1979 at the Met, or 1976/1980 examples): Those use three panels for sequential/head-turning views, deeper black voids, and Rembrandt-like shadowed modeling—more fragmented, existential, and mortality-focused amid accumulated losses. The 1970 diptych is smaller-scale, dual rather than triple, and less somber—bridging the intimate single heads of the late 1960s to the fragmented, multi-panel explorations later in the decade.
