Francis BACON before mid-1963
1949 The Third Head
2013 SOLD 10.4 M£ including premium
The art world discovered Francis Bacon in 1949. It was a shock. Taking foot against all themes in fashion, Bacon expresses horror, abjection, loneliness and animality of man. Art critics, Wyndham Lewis among them, are already enthusiastic.
At the invitation of Erica Brausen, Bacon exhibits ten paintings from November 8 to December 10 at the Hanover Gallery: six Heads, three Studies and a Figure in a landscape. At 40, this dissatisfied artist is still unknown for one simple reason: as far as he was not happy with the maturity of his style, he had used to destroy his own work as soon as executed.
Time has finally come for that so desired maturity. 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 heads. In Head VI, the scream of the nurse gives a provocative meaning to Velazquez's Pope. The nose clip, an accessory already outdated, adorns the face of the man in Head III.
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.
Head III is for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 26. The estimate at £ 5M seems too low but this caution from the auction house can be explained by the fact that no similar work has recently appeared on the art market.
POST SALE COMMENT
This painting is outstanding in the chronology of the art of Bacon. It was sold for £ 10.4 million including premium.
At the invitation of Erica Brausen, Bacon exhibits ten paintings from November 8 to December 10 at the Hanover Gallery: six Heads, three Studies and a Figure in a landscape. At 40, this dissatisfied artist is still unknown for one simple reason: as far as he was not happy with the maturity of his style, he had used to destroy his own work as soon as executed.
Time has finally come for that so desired maturity. 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 heads. In Head VI, the scream of the nurse gives a provocative meaning to Velazquez's Pope. The nose clip, an accessory already outdated, adorns the face of the man in Head III.
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.
Head III is for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 26. The estimate at £ 5M seems too low but this caution from the auction house can be explained by the fact that no similar work has recently appeared on the art market.
POST SALE COMMENT
This painting is outstanding in the chronology of the art of Bacon. It was sold for £ 10.4 million including premium.
1952 Study for a Nightmare
2019 SOLD for $ 50M including premium
Francis Bacon used to destroy his own works as soon as they did not suit him anymore. 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.
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 foul 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 frees 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.
For many years Bacon paints 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.
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells Study for a Head, oil and sand on canvas 66 x 56 cm painted in 1952, lot 9 estimated $ 20M. This nightmare is heavily inspired by the character of the Potemkin. The pontifical inspiration is not obvious in this specific opus.
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 foul 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 frees 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.
For many years Bacon paints 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.
On May 16 in New York, Sotheby's sells Study for a Head, oil and sand on canvas 66 x 56 cm painted in 1952, lot 9 estimated $ 20M. This nightmare is heavily inspired by the character of the Potemkin. The pontifical inspiration is not obvious in this specific opus.
1953 Study for a Trivial Man
2011 SOLD 18 M£ including premium
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, the Study for a portrait for sale by Christie's in London on June 28 anticipated by a few months the Man in Blue series. It is shared by Christie's Audio.
On this large oil on canvas, 198 x 137 cm, the anonymous man is sitting in an armchair, like a pope. Attention is drawn to the ageing 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 is a key work in the artistic development of Bacon. The auction house prefer not publishing an estimate.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price, £ 18M including premium, is consistent with the fact that it is a key work in the art of Bacon.
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, the Study for a portrait for sale by Christie's in London on June 28 anticipated by a few months the Man in Blue series. It is shared by Christie's Audio.
On this large oil on canvas, 198 x 137 cm, the anonymous man is sitting in an armchair, like a pope. Attention is drawn to the ageing 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 is a key work in the artistic development of Bacon. The auction house prefer not publishing an estimate.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price, £ 18M including premium, is consistent with the fact that it is a key work in the art of Bacon.
1954 The Post War Pope
2012 SOLD 30 M$ including premium
The post-war artists feel an irrepressible need to shout their disgust. Among them, Francis Bacon chooses a shocking representation. In 1948, he began his series of screaming Heads. The huge round mouth is an image inspired from the Battleship Potemkin film by Eisenstein.
The most powerful man on the planet is as weak as everybody. Head VI was Bacon's first work that was directly inspired by the portrait of Innocent X by Velazquez. The papal throne, not visible in the first image, has become a straitjacket, and the character has lost any freedom of movement.
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, the oil on canvas, 152 x 94 cm, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 13 is estimated $ 18M. The head and hands are the only clear spots in this dark composition. It is a masterpiece of the expression of anguish.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
The series of the screaming Popes made Bacon famous. This interesting and early example was sold $ 30M including premium.
The most powerful man on the planet is as weak as everybody. Head VI was Bacon's first work that was directly inspired by the portrait of Innocent X by Velazquez. The papal throne, not visible in the first image, has become a straitjacket, and the character has lost any freedom of movement.
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, the oil on canvas, 152 x 94 cm, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 13 is estimated $ 18M. The head and hands are the only clear spots in this dark composition. It is a masterpiece of the expression of anguish.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
The series of the screaming Popes made Bacon famous. This interesting and early example was sold $ 30M including premium.
1954 Eh well ! Let's continue ...
2016 SOLD for € 6M including premium
Ten years after the war the trauma is persisting. Bacon, like so many others, no longer finds the meaning of life. The atheistic existentialism of Sartre provides an explanation which is not an exit. Giacometti, whom Bacon has not yet met at that time, was suffering similar torments.
The scream of the Battleship Potemkin is not enough. A silent mouth is even more terrible because it expresses the impossibility of externalizing an emotion. The pope by Velazquez who is a permanent model of spinelessness is also not suitable : the trivial life of an anonymous human being is even more poignant.
Bacon puts his characters in cages without walls. Like Joseph Garcin in Sartre's Huis Clos, they are locked within their own incompetence. The anonymous man is surrounded by a dark blue space of increasing dimensions in which his small image is reduced to the face and the collar with a tie.
Painted in 1953 and titled Study for a Portrait, a masterpiece of this new style by Bacon, 198 x 137 cm, was sold for £ 18M including premium by Christie's on June 28, 2011.
The Man in Blue series, painted in 1954, has seven opus. It comes in direct continuation to the Study for a portrait. A unique and non-significant businessman expresses various feelings that are a gradual evolution toward despair. Bacon stressed that this series was conceived in the hotel where he often came to rest from his sadomasochistic relationship with Peter Lacy. This hotel guest inhibited in the depth of his blue anguish would also like to have some illicit adventures.
Man in Blue VI, oil on canvas 153 x 117 cm, was sold for £ 5M including premium by Christie's on February 13, 2013.
Man in Blue VII, of same technique and same size, is estimated € 5M for sale by Christie's in Paris on June 8, lot 16. Exhibited in the same year at the Venice Biennale, this artwork is one of those that brought an international recognition to the modernity of Francis Bacon, the most frightening artist of the postwar period.
The scream of the Battleship Potemkin is not enough. A silent mouth is even more terrible because it expresses the impossibility of externalizing an emotion. The pope by Velazquez who is a permanent model of spinelessness is also not suitable : the trivial life of an anonymous human being is even more poignant.
Bacon puts his characters in cages without walls. Like Joseph Garcin in Sartre's Huis Clos, they are locked within their own incompetence. The anonymous man is surrounded by a dark blue space of increasing dimensions in which his small image is reduced to the face and the collar with a tie.
Painted in 1953 and titled Study for a Portrait, a masterpiece of this new style by Bacon, 198 x 137 cm, was sold for £ 18M including premium by Christie's on June 28, 2011.
The Man in Blue series, painted in 1954, has seven opus. It comes in direct continuation to the Study for a portrait. A unique and non-significant businessman expresses various feelings that are a gradual evolution toward despair. Bacon stressed that this series was conceived in the hotel where he often came to rest from his sadomasochistic relationship with Peter Lacy. This hotel guest inhibited in the depth of his blue anguish would also like to have some illicit adventures.
Man in Blue VI, oil on canvas 153 x 117 cm, was sold for £ 5M including premium by Christie's on February 13, 2013.
Man in Blue VII, of same technique and same size, is estimated € 5M for sale by Christie's in Paris on June 8, lot 16. Exhibited in the same year at the Venice Biennale, this artwork is one of those that brought an international recognition to the modernity of Francis Bacon, the most frightening artist of the postwar period.
1955 Portrait of a Contemporary Pope
2015 SOLD for £ 10M including premium
Francis Bacon composed his paintings from photographs. Troubled by the paradox of the human vulnerability of the most powerful leaders, he displays their pictures in his studio.
He focuses his analysis on two popes, the image of the painting of Innocent X by Velazquez and a photograph of the Pope of his time, Pius XII. Reigning since 1939, Pius XII had been confronted with the atrocities of war and racism with an efficiency that would later be disputed. His elongated head and hollow cheeks perfectly illustrate the theme chosen by Bacon.
On February 11 in London, Christie's sells Study for a head painted by Bacon in 1955, oil on canvas 102 x 77 cm, lot 17.
In the expressive style of the artist, the face of the pope is perfectly recognizable, and his glasses were not omitted. The dark colors on a black background increase the tragic feeling that haunts Francis after the Battleship Potemkin.
What was happening into the troubled mind of the artist ? A continuity of style is established between this painting and his first self-portrait, made in the following year, as if Francis suddenly understood that the vulnerability of others that aroused his discomfort should also and especially apply to himself.
The critical imaging of the men of power will experience another climax in 1972 with Mao's portrait by Warhol.
He focuses his analysis on two popes, the image of the painting of Innocent X by Velazquez and a photograph of the Pope of his time, Pius XII. Reigning since 1939, Pius XII had been confronted with the atrocities of war and racism with an efficiency that would later be disputed. His elongated head and hollow cheeks perfectly illustrate the theme chosen by Bacon.
On February 11 in London, Christie's sells Study for a head painted by Bacon in 1955, oil on canvas 102 x 77 cm, lot 17.
In the expressive style of the artist, the face of the pope is perfectly recognizable, and his glasses were not omitted. The dark colors on a black background increase the tragic feeling that haunts Francis after the Battleship Potemkin.
What was happening into the troubled mind of the artist ? A continuity of style is established between this painting and his first self-portrait, made in the following year, as if Francis suddenly understood that the vulnerability of others that aroused his discomfort should also and especially apply to himself.
The critical imaging of the men of power will experience another climax in 1972 with Mao's portrait by Warhol.
1960 The Papal Obsession of Francis Bacon
2014 SOLD for $ 45M including premium
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.
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.
A Seated figure, oil on canvas 153 x 119 cm painted in 1960, is estimated $ 40 million for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 45.
On May 15, 2007, Sotheby's sold for $ 53M including premium a Study from Innocent X painted in 1962, 198 x 142 cm. It was at that time the highest price recorded at auction for any artwork by Bacon. The attitude of the character curled on his throne is altogether burlesque and tragic.
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.
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.
A Seated figure, oil on canvas 153 x 119 cm painted in 1960, is estimated $ 40 million for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 45.
On May 15, 2007, Sotheby's sold for $ 53M including premium a Study from Innocent X painted in 1962, 198 x 142 cm. It was at that time the highest price recorded at auction for any artwork by Bacon. The attitude of the character curled on his throne is altogether burlesque and tragic.
1961 Portrait of the Club Owner
2015 SOLD for $ 28M including premium
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 € 13.7 million including premium by Sotheby's on 12 December 2007. It is now estimated $ 25M for sale by Phillips in New York on May 14, 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 € 13.7 million including premium by Sotheby's on 12 December 2007. It is now estimated $ 25M for sale by Phillips in New York on May 14, 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.
1961 The Muses of Soho
2011 SOLD 8.3 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Half a century ago, Soho, London's hottest district, provided the hedonists with a certain atmosphere of freedom. You could meet there Francis Bacon, his artist friends, his fellows and their girlfriends.
When Bacon was interested in the female nude, he did it in a masterful and unprecedented manner. The female body is not for him an object of desire. It is a kind of curled meat, but still capable of communication and feelings.
He worked this theme from the merciless photographs of John Deakin. We do not know who was the model of the Crouching Nude, for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 29 , probably Henrietta Moraes, or perhaps Muriel Belcher, or even a mixture of both.
Painted in 1961, this oil on canvas, 198 x 145 cm, is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity. In a green room with no furniture or decoration, the female monster throws her head with aggressive teeth that make her a foreshadowing of death dance. The accurate line, not blurred, is surrealist.
A sex shop would refuse this work which can only drive away the customers. This vision of horror of the fair sex by the artist of the most puzzling psychology is estimated £ 7M.
The seated woman (portrait of Muriel Belcher), 165 x 142 cm, sold € 13.7 million including premium by Sotheby's in Paris on December 12, 2007 had been painted in the same year.
POST SALE COMMENT
This nightmare work was sold £ 8.3 million including premium. It thus remained in the lower part of the range of estimates.
Half a century ago, Soho, London's hottest district, provided the hedonists with a certain atmosphere of freedom. You could meet there Francis Bacon, his artist friends, his fellows and their girlfriends.
When Bacon was interested in the female nude, he did it in a masterful and unprecedented manner. The female body is not for him an object of desire. It is a kind of curled meat, but still capable of communication and feelings.
He worked this theme from the merciless photographs of John Deakin. We do not know who was the model of the Crouching Nude, for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 29 , probably Henrietta Moraes, or perhaps Muriel Belcher, or even a mixture of both.
Painted in 1961, this oil on canvas, 198 x 145 cm, is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity. In a green room with no furniture or decoration, the female monster throws her head with aggressive teeth that make her a foreshadowing of death dance. The accurate line, not blurred, is surrealist.
A sex shop would refuse this work which can only drive away the customers. This vision of horror of the fair sex by the artist of the most puzzling psychology is estimated £ 7M.
The seated woman (portrait of Muriel Belcher), 165 x 142 cm, sold € 13.7 million including premium by Sotheby's in Paris on December 12, 2007 had been painted in the same year.
POST SALE COMMENT
This nightmare work was sold £ 8.3 million including premium. It thus remained in the lower part of the range of estimates.
1962 Study from Innocent X by Bacon
2007 SOLD for $ 53M including premium by Sotheby's
1962 Study for the Flesh of Man
2014 SOLD 22.6 M$ including premium
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 € 13.7 million including premium at Sotheby's on December 12, 2007 is Muriel Belcher. The barely identifiable crouching woman 198 x 145 cm that sold for £ 8.2 million including premium at Sotheby's on June 29, 2011 looks like a reminiscence of Max Ernst's horrors of war.
On May 13 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 198 x 145 cm painted in 1962 entitled Figure turning, estimated $ 20M, 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 € 13.7 million including premium at Sotheby's on December 12, 2007 is Muriel Belcher. The barely identifiable crouching woman 198 x 145 cm that sold for £ 8.2 million including premium at Sotheby's on June 29, 2011 looks like a reminiscence of Max Ernst's horrors of war.
On May 13 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 198 x 145 cm painted in 1962 entitled Figure turning, estimated $ 20M, 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.
