Francis BACON before 1963
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Bacon Bird
Chronology : 1952 1953 1954 1958 1960 1961 1962
See also : Bacon Bird
Chronology : 1952 1953 1954 1958 1960 1961 1962
1944 masterpiece
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion
Tate
Criticism of religion is an inspiration for Francis Bacon. In 1944 he mixed Christianity with the horrors of war in Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, which he considered as his first completed work. This image assured him a scandalous success.
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (c. 1944) by Francis Bacon is widely regarded as a pivotal breakthrough in modern art, particularly in post-war British and European painting. This oil and pastel triptych on fibreboard, now held by Tate Britain, depicts three grotesque, biomorphic creatures—writhing anthropomorphic figures with elongated necks, exposed teeth, and blindfolded or featureless heads—perched on table-like structures against a vivid, flat burnt-orange background. Inspired by the Furies (Eumenides) from Aeschylus's Oresteia, these hybrid human-animal forms evoke vengeance, pain, and primal instinct rather than traditional religious iconography.
Why it is considered a breakthrough:
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (c. 1944) by Francis Bacon is widely regarded as a pivotal breakthrough in modern art, particularly in post-war British and European painting. This oil and pastel triptych on fibreboard, now held by Tate Britain, depicts three grotesque, biomorphic creatures—writhing anthropomorphic figures with elongated necks, exposed teeth, and blindfolded or featureless heads—perched on table-like structures against a vivid, flat burnt-orange background. Inspired by the Furies (Eumenides) from Aeschylus's Oresteia, these hybrid human-animal forms evoke vengeance, pain, and primal instinct rather than traditional religious iconography.
Why it is considered a breakthrough:
- Marks the start of Bacon's mature style and career: Bacon, a late bloomer who painted sporadically in the 1920s–1930s, destroyed most pre-1944 works and insisted this triptych was the true beginning of his oeuvre. Critics like John Russell and David Sylvester aligned with this view, treating it as his first fully realized masterpiece. It established his signature approach: violently distorting the human figure to convey raw emotion directly to the "nervous system," balancing on a "tightrope" between figuration and abstraction.
- Innovative distortion of the human form: The figures blend human and animal traits, drawing from Picasso's late-1920s biomorphic bathers, Eadweard Muybridge's motion studies, and wildlife imagery. This created Bacon's hallmark "hybridised beings"—monstrous yet poignant—exploring human behavior as instinctual and brutal. It shifted crucifixion imagery from literal religious scenes (no cross or Christ appears) to a secular "armature" for existential themes, including self-portraiture and private feelings about violence, power, and life's meaninglessness.
- Post-war resonance and raw expression of trauma: Painted in 1944 amid WWII's end, with emerging reports of Nazi concentration camps and atomic bombs, the work captured widespread horror, alienation, and nihilism. Its visceral, screaming forms reflected collective anguish in a godless world, where humans are "transient meat" subject to meaningless suffering. Exhibited in 1945, it shocked audiences and critics, making Bacon overnight the most controversial British painter and redefining post-war art through unflinching depictions of suffering.
- Influence on modern figurative painting: In a era dominated by abstraction, Bacon revived distorted figuration with emotional intensity, influencing later artists confronting violence and the body. Tate curators describe it as a "turning point in the history of British art," sealing Bacon's reputation as a chronicler of the human condition's bleakness.
Head
1
1949 Head III
2013 SOLD for £ 10.4M by Sotheby's
Francis Bacon used to destroy his own works as soon as executed as far as he was not happy with the maturity of his style. Almost everything has gone.
An oil on linen simply titled and dated Painting 1946 survived because it was bought very early by the gallerist Erica Brausen for Graham Sutherland.
The post-war artists feel an irrepressible need to shout their disgust. Painting 1946 is a surrealist work. The artist originally wanted to stage a chimpanzee because visitors like to recognize themselves in a painting as in their own mirror. The monkey turned into a bird of prey and then into a fool creature encircled behind a barrier like in a museum.
The success of Painting 1946 led in 1949 to the project of a series of six Heads, also supported by Brausen. With an increasing intensity from I to VI, Bacon releases two of his major obsessions, the snapshot of death symbolized by the scream of the old woman in Battleship Potemkin, and the vanity of power symbolized by Velazquez's Innocent X.
At the invitation of Brausen, Bacon exhibits ten paintings from November 8 to December 10, 1949 at the Hanover Gallery : the six Heads, three Studies and a Figure in a landscape.
Time has finally come for that so desired maturity. The discovery of the 40 year old artist was a shock for the art community. Taking foot against all themes in fashion, Bacon expresses horror, abjection, loneliness and animality of man. Art critics led by Wyndham Lewis are already enthusiastic.
The ten works exhibited by Brausen anticipate a variety of aspects of Bacon's language. Heads or bodies dissolve in the sober background of the scene. Already, the crucifixion is a triptych.
The trauma of the image of the Battleship Potemkin had profoundly influenced Bacon. He dissociates it for using it within two separate figures. The nose clip, an outdated artifact, adorns the face of the man in Head III. In Head VI, the scream of the nurse gives a provocative meaning to Velazquez's Pope.
Head III, oil on canvas 81 x 66 cm, has the sharp line of a portrait that could be recognizable. The man with sharp gaze and no forehead is certainly his friend Eric Hall. This could be the most ancient non destructed portrait in the work of Francis Bacon. It was sold for £ 10.4M from a lower estimate of £ 5M by Sotheby's on June 26, 2013.
An oil on linen simply titled and dated Painting 1946 survived because it was bought very early by the gallerist Erica Brausen for Graham Sutherland.
The post-war artists feel an irrepressible need to shout their disgust. Painting 1946 is a surrealist work. The artist originally wanted to stage a chimpanzee because visitors like to recognize themselves in a painting as in their own mirror. The monkey turned into a bird of prey and then into a fool creature encircled behind a barrier like in a museum.
The success of Painting 1946 led in 1949 to the project of a series of six Heads, also supported by Brausen. With an increasing intensity from I to VI, Bacon releases two of his major obsessions, the snapshot of death symbolized by the scream of the old woman in Battleship Potemkin, and the vanity of power symbolized by Velazquez's Innocent X.
At the invitation of Brausen, Bacon exhibits ten paintings from November 8 to December 10, 1949 at the Hanover Gallery : the six Heads, three Studies and a Figure in a landscape.
Time has finally come for that so desired maturity. The discovery of the 40 year old artist was a shock for the art community. Taking foot against all themes in fashion, Bacon expresses horror, abjection, loneliness and animality of man. Art critics led by Wyndham Lewis are already enthusiastic.
The ten works exhibited by Brausen anticipate a variety of aspects of Bacon's language. Heads or bodies dissolve in the sober background of the scene. Already, the crucifixion is a triptych.
The trauma of the image of the Battleship Potemkin had profoundly influenced Bacon. He dissociates it for using it within two separate figures. The nose clip, an outdated artifact, adorns the face of the man in Head III. In Head VI, the scream of the nurse gives a provocative meaning to Velazquez's Pope.
Head III, oil on canvas 81 x 66 cm, has the sharp line of a portrait that could be recognizable. The man with sharp gaze and no forehead is certainly his friend Eric Hall. This could be the most ancient non destructed portrait in the work of Francis Bacon. It was sold for £ 10.4M from a lower estimate of £ 5M by Sotheby's on June 26, 2013.
2
masterpiece
1949 Head VI
Hayward Gallery
Head VI was Bacon's first work that was directly inspired by the Velazquez portrait of Innocent X. The papal throne, not visible in Head I, has become a straitjacket, and the character has lost any freedom of movement.
For many years Bacon will paint studies associating the same hallucinations. An impotent pope is trapped on his throne as in a cage. The resemblance to the Eisenstein film scene is reinforced by the broken nose-clip in front of the swollen eye. He no longer needs a monkey to offer to the viewer the mirror of his horror.
Grok thought :
Quote
Otto Overgaard @OttoOvergaard May 31, 2019
Bacon’s paintings embodies the existential ethos of the postwar era. In his powerful, nihilistic works, tormented and deformed figures become players in dark, unresolved dramas. ALL COLOURS WILL AGREE IN THE DARK Francis Bacon HEAD VI | 1949
For many years Bacon will paint studies associating the same hallucinations. An impotent pope is trapped on his throne as in a cage. The resemblance to the Eisenstein film scene is reinforced by the broken nose-clip in front of the swollen eye. He no longer needs a monkey to offer to the viewer the mirror of his horror.
Grok thought :
Quote
Otto Overgaard @OttoOvergaard May 31, 2019
Bacon’s paintings embodies the existential ethos of the postwar era. In his powerful, nihilistic works, tormented and deformed figures become players in dark, unresolved dramas. ALL COLOURS WILL AGREE IN THE DARK Francis Bacon HEAD VI | 1949
- Otto Overgaard's post interprets Francis Bacon's 1949 painting "Head VI" as a visceral embodiment of postwar existential dread, depicting a distorted, screaming figure confined in a geometric cage that evokes isolation and unresolved anguish from World War II trauma.
- The quote "ALL COLOURS WILL AGREE IN THE DARK" is misattributed to the painter Bacon but originates from philosopher Francis Bacon's 1625 essay "Of Beauty," surprisingly linking themes of perceptual unity in oblivion across both figures' explorations of human limits.
- A key reply from art historian Thomas Waters praises the analysis while noting the work's primal, demonic mouth subverts the era's optimistic rationalism, emphasizing technology's failure to quell underlying horror, as supported by Bacon's influences like Velázquez's "Portrait of Innocent X."
3
1952 Study for a Head
2019 SOLD for $ 50M by Sotheby's
On May 16, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 50M from a lower estimate of $ 20M Study for a Head, oil and sand on canvas 66 x 56 cm painted in 1952, lot 9.
This nightmare is heavily inspired by the character of the Potemkin. The pontifical inspiration is not obvious in this specific opus.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys May 17, 2019
#AuctionUpdate: Bringing home the Bacon: From the collection of Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis, Francis Bacon’s ‘Study for a Head’, an outstanding example of the artist’s most recognizable iconography: the ‘screaming Pope’ brings $50.4 million
This nightmare is heavily inspired by the character of the Potemkin. The pontifical inspiration is not obvious in this specific opus.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys May 17, 2019
#AuctionUpdate: Bringing home the Bacon: From the collection of Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis, Francis Bacon’s ‘Study for a Head’, an outstanding example of the artist’s most recognizable iconography: the ‘screaming Pope’ brings $50.4 million
- Sotheby's announced the $50.4 million sale of Francis Bacon's 1952 "Study for a Head" from a private collection, exceeding its $20-30 million estimate in the 2019 Contemporary Art Evening Auction.
- The painting depicts a distorted, screaming figure in clerical attire, part of Bacon's iconic "screaming Pope" series inspired by Velázquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X, symbolizing existential anguish through smeared oil and sand on canvas.
- This record price underscored Bacon's enduring market dominance, with his works averaging over $20 million at auction since 2010, reflecting collector interest in his raw exploration of human suffering.
1953 Study for a Portrait
2011 SOLD for £ 18M by Christie's
The artists of the twentieth century have greatly admired Velazquez. Francis Bacon goes further: his many studies of Innocent X are a great example of appropriation. Any pope is a human, and therefore has the ability to scream, but which message does he screams so? His social position does not allow such an arrogance.
In the artistic language of Bacon, a man who does not scream may be even more terrible because he does not eject his tensions.
Painted in 1953, a Study for a portrait features the anonymous man seated in an armchair, like a pope. Attention is drawn to the aging serious face and to trivial attributes of social success like the glasses and the tie. The rest of the subject melts into the dark and sinister atmosphere. This portrait is like a mirror where the viewer sees his own banality charged by empty feeling.
This large size oil on canvas 198 x 137 cm was sold for £ 18M by Christie's on June 28, 2011. This painting anticipated by a few months the Man in Blue series.
In the artistic language of Bacon, a man who does not scream may be even more terrible because he does not eject his tensions.
Painted in 1953, a Study for a portrait features the anonymous man seated in an armchair, like a pope. Attention is drawn to the aging serious face and to trivial attributes of social success like the glasses and the tie. The rest of the subject melts into the dark and sinister atmosphere. This portrait is like a mirror where the viewer sees his own banality charged by empty feeling.
This large size oil on canvas 198 x 137 cm was sold for £ 18M by Christie's on June 28, 2011. This painting anticipated by a few months the Man in Blue series.
Pope
The amalgam between the Portrait of Pope Innocent X by Velazquez and the scream from Eisenstein's Potemkin was less socially destructive than the seminal Figures at the base of a Crucifixion.
1
1954 screaming Pope
2012 SOLD for $ 30M by Sotheby's
The most powerful man on the planet is as weak as everybody.
Bacon executes many studies on this theme that soon makes him famous. A network of vertical or oblique lines more or less colored come to still more imprison that symbolic post-war Pope.
Executed circa 1954, an oil on canvas, 152 x 94 cm was sold for $ 30M from a lower estimate of $ 18M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012. The head and hands are the only clear spots in this dark composition. It is a masterpiece of the expression of anguish.
Bacon executes many studies on this theme that soon makes him famous. A network of vertical or oblique lines more or less colored come to still more imprison that symbolic post-war Pope.
Executed circa 1954, an oil on canvas, 152 x 94 cm was sold for $ 30M from a lower estimate of $ 18M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012. The head and hands are the only clear spots in this dark composition. It is a masterpiece of the expression of anguish.
1958 Pope with Owls
2021 SOLD for $ 33M by Phillips
Since 1952 Francis Bacon is madly in love with Peter Lacy. Europe is not favorable to homosexuality and Peter settles in Tangier. From 1956 Francis visits him frequently. He works a lot despite the sadistic violence of his lover. Disillusioned by these increasingly insupportable conditions and by Peter's lack of interest in his art, Francis breaks up in 1959 and destroys almost all his Tangier paintings.
Throughout this period, his two major themes are the portraits of the ordinary man and the reinterpretations of the Velazquez pope. The two series match together over the great question of the meaning of life in a hostile world, nourished by the Freudian horror of the abusive authority of the father,
The popes of the Moroccan period have a very limited resemblance with Innocent X and lost the scream of the Potemkin. The mouth is open on a sharp set of teeth ready to bite, some of them missing in the jaw. The cheeks are emaciated. The face is painted in a thick impasto that reveals the violence of the gesture of the artist.
Pope with owls, oil on canvas 145 x 110 cm painted ca 1958, was acquired by its first owner directly from the artist in Tangier in 1959.
The papal figure in a dark staging of deep purple and dark red is haunting. His laughter reveals his craziness and indirectly the dead end of Francis's relation with Peter. The arms of the chair are closing onto him, canceling any hope to escape.
A pair of night birds perched as finials over the seat are watching straight forward, questioning the viewer from their cold gaze.
Pope with Owls was sold for $ 33M by Phillips on November 17, 2021, lot 16.
Throughout this period, his two major themes are the portraits of the ordinary man and the reinterpretations of the Velazquez pope. The two series match together over the great question of the meaning of life in a hostile world, nourished by the Freudian horror of the abusive authority of the father,
The popes of the Moroccan period have a very limited resemblance with Innocent X and lost the scream of the Potemkin. The mouth is open on a sharp set of teeth ready to bite, some of them missing in the jaw. The cheeks are emaciated. The face is painted in a thick impasto that reveals the violence of the gesture of the artist.
Pope with owls, oil on canvas 145 x 110 cm painted ca 1958, was acquired by its first owner directly from the artist in Tangier in 1959.
The papal figure in a dark staging of deep purple and dark red is haunting. His laughter reveals his craziness and indirectly the dead end of Francis's relation with Peter. The arms of the chair are closing onto him, canceling any hope to escape.
A pair of night birds perched as finials over the seat are watching straight forward, questioning the viewer from their cold gaze.
Pope with Owls was sold for $ 33M by Phillips on November 17, 2021, lot 16.
3
1960 Seated Figure
2014 SOLD for $ 45M by Christie's
The arrival of the papal figures in the art of Francis Bacon goes back to his early period of which almost nothing remains since he destroyed his works. Starting just after the Second World War, this theme is political : a pope is also a man, and the luxury inherent in his position cannot hide a psychological distress.
The model is famous : the portrait of Innocent X by Velazquez. As a precaution, Bacon would not see the original artwork for not altering his creative impetus. For over fifteen years, he executed about fifty paintings on this theme. The earliest were screaming their incompetence at offering a better world. Francis only knew Velazquez's Innocent X from chromos, but he appreciates that the color palette contributes greatly to the psychological effect.
Around 1960, Bacon's popes become silent, as tragic as the screaming characters. The colors are brushed in powerful gestures that make the face unreadable and unidentifiable. He will proceed in the same way for some portraits of his friends in Soho. The throne becomes neutral but the atmosphere in red and crimson maintains the original message of political absurdity.
Seated Figure, oil on canvas 153 x 119 cm painted in 1960, is more directly inspired by Velazquez for the petrified position of the character and for its new dominant red. It was sold for $ 45M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 45.
The model is famous : the portrait of Innocent X by Velazquez. As a precaution, Bacon would not see the original artwork for not altering his creative impetus. For over fifteen years, he executed about fifty paintings on this theme. The earliest were screaming their incompetence at offering a better world. Francis only knew Velazquez's Innocent X from chromos, but he appreciates that the color palette contributes greatly to the psychological effect.
Around 1960, Bacon's popes become silent, as tragic as the screaming characters. The colors are brushed in powerful gestures that make the face unreadable and unidentifiable. He will proceed in the same way for some portraits of his friends in Soho. The throne becomes neutral but the atmosphere in red and crimson maintains the original message of political absurdity.
Seated Figure, oil on canvas 153 x 119 cm painted in 1960, is more directly inspired by Velazquez for the petrified position of the character and for its new dominant red. It was sold for $ 45M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 45.
1961 Seated Woman
2015 SOLD for $ 28M by Phillips
Francis Bacon never worked in the presence of his model. His desire was to exhale the deep and intimate personality of his friends. In 1959, aged half a century, Francis takes as the theme of his figures the men and women with whom he spends his nights in Soho. He commissions their photos to John Deakin who was part of his group.
Muriel Belcher is of course included in this project. He knew her for a long time. When she opened her private drinking club in 1948, this lesbian activist paid Francis to bring his homosexual male friends.
Muriel is not a beauty but that does not discourage Francis who does not seek eroticism in women but empathy. Why does he display her seated in the nude on a disordered sofa ? Did she play for Deakin such a prudish attitude with carefully crossed legs hiding the sex ?
This oil on canvas 165 x 142 cm simply titled Seated woman was painted in 1961. It was sold for € 13.7M by Sotheby's on December 12, 2007 and for $ 28M by Phillips on May 14, 2015, lot 33.
This uncommon personality was also authoritarian and bad tempered. Above her uninteresting and unappealing nude body, Francis showed the old-fashioned hair parted in the middle, the prominent chin and the bushy eyebrows in a cubist composition of two mingled profiles.
The clear face is encircled by the hair and the shade of cheeks and chin, building the shape of a heart or of an apple with its stalk, a surprising way found by the artist to encode his friendship with his former sponsor. Francis Bacon will never stop surprising us.
Muriel Belcher is of course included in this project. He knew her for a long time. When she opened her private drinking club in 1948, this lesbian activist paid Francis to bring his homosexual male friends.
Muriel is not a beauty but that does not discourage Francis who does not seek eroticism in women but empathy. Why does he display her seated in the nude on a disordered sofa ? Did she play for Deakin such a prudish attitude with carefully crossed legs hiding the sex ?
This oil on canvas 165 x 142 cm simply titled Seated woman was painted in 1961. It was sold for € 13.7M by Sotheby's on December 12, 2007 and for $ 28M by Phillips on May 14, 2015, lot 33.
This uncommon personality was also authoritarian and bad tempered. Above her uninteresting and unappealing nude body, Francis showed the old-fashioned hair parted in the middle, the prominent chin and the bushy eyebrows in a cubist composition of two mingled profiles.
The clear face is encircled by the hair and the shade of cheeks and chin, building the shape of a heart or of an apple with its stalk, a surprising way found by the artist to encode his friendship with his former sponsor. Francis Bacon will never stop surprising us.
1962 Study from Innocent X
2007 SOLD for $ 53M by Sotheby's
During the 1950s Francis retains from Innocent X the psychosis of a human being who has been given a preeminent role far beyond his abilities. His screaming Popes from that time, in bust or half-length on a dark background, are irremediably locked on their thrones.
Around 1960 his desires change. It is the good life in Soho. He interprets the ugliness of his friends through the photos by John Deakin. His Popes are becoming rarer.
An oil on canvas 198 x 142 cm painted in 1962 is the most explicit. The title, Study from Innocent X, even lost the ambiguity that Francis had so keenly maintained. The composition is enlarged compared to Velazquez and to Seated Figure, staging the whole scene in an empty room. The curled-up man is locked with his seat in the filiform cage that Francis used to display humans to monkeys. It was sold for $ 53M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, lot 22.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Francis Bacon's "Study from Innocent X" (1962) represents a pivotal culmination in his renowned "Popes" series, comprising around 50 works created between 1949 and 1971 that obsessively reinterpreted Diego Velázquez's 1650 "Portrait of Pope Innocent X." As one of Bacon's most direct engagements with the Old Master tradition, it marked a bold evolution in his approach: it was the first in the series to fully adopt Velázquez's fiery red color palette (vivid orange-red robes and maroon drapery), presenting a full-length, enthroned papal figure distorted into a grimacing, anguished form evoking existential isolation and modern psychological torment. The face draws from a silent scream in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 film "Battleship Potemkin," rendered with violent impasto and brushstrokes to convey raw human vulnerability beneath symbols of power—a hallmark of Bacon's mature style that bridged figurative expressionism and post-war existentialism.
Created amid Bacon's rising prominence, the painting was swiftly included in his first major retrospective at the Tate Gallery in London (1962–1963, traveling internationally), affirming his status as a leading 20th-century artist capable of reinventing historical motifs to capture contemporary anguish. Its significance is further underscored by Bacon's inability to borrow it for his triumphant 1971 Grand Palais exhibition in Paris, prompting him to paint a second version ("Study of Red Pope 1962. 2nd Version 1971")—his final "pope" work—which encapsulated personal turmoil from his relationship with lover George Dyer. The 1962 original thus not only epitomized Bacon's thematic obsessions but also influenced his later output, solidifying his legacy as a master of distorted portraiture.
The work's 2007 sale at Sotheby's New York (May 15, lot 22) for $52.68 million set a then-record for Bacon at auction, reflecting his escalating market recognition and the painting's status as an "ultimate Pope image" in his oeuvre.
Around 1960 his desires change. It is the good life in Soho. He interprets the ugliness of his friends through the photos by John Deakin. His Popes are becoming rarer.
An oil on canvas 198 x 142 cm painted in 1962 is the most explicit. The title, Study from Innocent X, even lost the ambiguity that Francis had so keenly maintained. The composition is enlarged compared to Velazquez and to Seated Figure, staging the whole scene in an empty room. The curled-up man is locked with his seat in the filiform cage that Francis used to display humans to monkeys. It was sold for $ 53M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, lot 22.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Francis Bacon's "Study from Innocent X" (1962) represents a pivotal culmination in his renowned "Popes" series, comprising around 50 works created between 1949 and 1971 that obsessively reinterpreted Diego Velázquez's 1650 "Portrait of Pope Innocent X." As one of Bacon's most direct engagements with the Old Master tradition, it marked a bold evolution in his approach: it was the first in the series to fully adopt Velázquez's fiery red color palette (vivid orange-red robes and maroon drapery), presenting a full-length, enthroned papal figure distorted into a grimacing, anguished form evoking existential isolation and modern psychological torment. The face draws from a silent scream in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 film "Battleship Potemkin," rendered with violent impasto and brushstrokes to convey raw human vulnerability beneath symbols of power—a hallmark of Bacon's mature style that bridged figurative expressionism and post-war existentialism.
Created amid Bacon's rising prominence, the painting was swiftly included in his first major retrospective at the Tate Gallery in London (1962–1963, traveling internationally), affirming his status as a leading 20th-century artist capable of reinventing historical motifs to capture contemporary anguish. Its significance is further underscored by Bacon's inability to borrow it for his triumphant 1971 Grand Palais exhibition in Paris, prompting him to paint a second version ("Study of Red Pope 1962. 2nd Version 1971")—his final "pope" work—which encapsulated personal turmoil from his relationship with lover George Dyer. The 1962 original thus not only epitomized Bacon's thematic obsessions but also influenced his later output, solidifying his legacy as a master of distorted portraiture.
The work's 2007 sale at Sotheby's New York (May 15, lot 22) for $52.68 million set a then-record for Bacon at auction, reflecting his escalating market recognition and the painting's status as an "ultimate Pope image" in his oeuvre.
1962 Figure Turning
2014 SOLD for $ 22.6M by Christie's
In 1961, Francis Bacon has long been a regular of Soho drinking clubs. Peter Lacy, his sadistic lover, is far away. In the indescribable mess of his studio, he seeks inspiration in the photos of his friends that John Deakin provides to him.
This is one among many psychologically difficult periods for Bacon. In his quest on the nature of the human condition, he considers the nude. His studies of women show a decay of the body to an extent rarely seen in art. The sharp drawing makes untenable such a vision.
The sitting woman 165 x 142 cm that sold for $ 28M by Phillips on May 14, 2015, lot 33. is Muriel Belcher. The barely identifiable crouching woman 198 x 145 cm that sold for £ 8.2M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2011 looks like a reminiscence of Max Ernst's horrors of war.
On May 13, 2014, Christie's sold for $ 22.6M Figure turning, oil on canvas 198 x 145 cm painted in 1962, lot 37.
In contrast to the female nudes, this figure of a naked man is sculptural, made expressive by subtle variations in the color of flesh. Balancing on one leg in Bacon's signature empty room, he does not reveal who he is or why he is here. His shadow on a floor that does not seem shiny is the birth of his ghost.
This is one among many psychologically difficult periods for Bacon. In his quest on the nature of the human condition, he considers the nude. His studies of women show a decay of the body to an extent rarely seen in art. The sharp drawing makes untenable such a vision.
The sitting woman 165 x 142 cm that sold for $ 28M by Phillips on May 14, 2015, lot 33. is Muriel Belcher. The barely identifiable crouching woman 198 x 145 cm that sold for £ 8.2M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2011 looks like a reminiscence of Max Ernst's horrors of war.
On May 13, 2014, Christie's sold for $ 22.6M Figure turning, oil on canvas 198 x 145 cm painted in 1962, lot 37.
In contrast to the female nudes, this figure of a naked man is sculptural, made expressive by subtle variations in the color of flesh. Balancing on one leg in Bacon's signature empty room, he does not reveal who he is or why he is here. His shadow on a floor that does not seem shiny is the birth of his ghost.
1962 Portrait
2015 SOLD for $ 15.7M by Sotheby's
At the end of his sado masochistic affair with Peter, Francis Bacon begins a series of psychological portraits of his friends. He never works from life. John Deakin provides him with photos of their friends of the Soho drinking clubs.
These figures supposed to render the psychology of the sitter are not appealing. The bodies are distorted and the heads are represented as a magma of rotting colors. The cold green surrounding of the sofa or of the floor adds to the discomfort of the artist within his own gang.
In 1961 a female nude is crouching on the floor in a green surrounding. The model may be Henrietta Moraes or Muriel Belcher. The repulsive expression reminds a Dance of death. It was sold for £ 8.3M by Christie's on May 14, 2013.
In 1961 also a nude Muriel Belcher is seated in a fetal position on the green sofa. The cubist face is ugly. This Seated woman was sold for $ 28M by Phillips on May 14, 2015, lot 33.
In 1962 Peter is featured under a cover of anonymity seating on the green sofa in a total nudity with a big sex leaning on a leg. This painting was sold for $ 15.7M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015, lot 20.
A 1962 post mortem fully dressed portrait of Peter on another sofa passed at Sotheby's on May 14, 2013, lot 23.
These figures supposed to render the psychology of the sitter are not appealing. The bodies are distorted and the heads are represented as a magma of rotting colors. The cold green surrounding of the sofa or of the floor adds to the discomfort of the artist within his own gang.
In 1961 a female nude is crouching on the floor in a green surrounding. The model may be Henrietta Moraes or Muriel Belcher. The repulsive expression reminds a Dance of death. It was sold for £ 8.3M by Christie's on May 14, 2013.
In 1961 also a nude Muriel Belcher is seated in a fetal position on the green sofa. The cubist face is ugly. This Seated woman was sold for $ 28M by Phillips on May 14, 2015, lot 33.
In 1962 Peter is featured under a cover of anonymity seating on the green sofa in a total nudity with a big sex leaning on a leg. This painting was sold for $ 15.7M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015, lot 20.
A 1962 post mortem fully dressed portrait of Peter on another sofa passed at Sotheby's on May 14, 2013, lot 23.
