Decade 1970-1979
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Groups Abstract art II Landscape Celebrities by Warhol Later Warhols Twombly The Man Animals Bird Bacon Later Bacons Hockney UK II De Kooning French sculpture Sculpture by painters Matisse
See also : Groups Abstract art II Landscape Celebrities by Warhol Later Warhols Twombly The Man Animals Bird Bacon Later Bacons Hockney UK II De Kooning French sculpture Sculpture by painters Matisse
1970 Untitled (Blackboard) by Twombly
2014 SOLD for $ 70M by Christie's
Cy Twombly was projecting in his art his initial training in cryptology and his aesthetic feelings. In his first Roman period, he imagines that the colored patches that he positions on the canvas are reminiscent of messages too erased for being understood but opening an access to mythical meanings.
From 1966 Twombly continues his semiotic research towards psychoanalysis. On the black canvas that resembles the board of infant schools, he draws in white his messages which are indecipherable in direct reading but speak to the mind of the viewer.
The comparison between two canvases painted in 1970 show that the artist is seeking to express the diversity of humanity as well as his own creativity. Now inspired by graphology, Twombly's art describes and interprets the range of human characters in the fundamental and formative phase of early childhood.
One of these Blackboards, located in New York City, 144 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 17.5M by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. The writing is nervous, with angles and backtracking.
Another example, 156 x 190 cm, is not located in the title but has been painted after the return to Rome of the artist. It was sold for $ 70M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 20.
Here, the fake writing is made of very regular loops as if they came from an intelligent and quiet schoolchild, but their four lines form a tangled hair which widens from top to bottom in a false perspective.
On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 42M another Untitled (Rome), also executed in 1970, house paint and wax crayon on canvas 155 x 195 cm, lot 110. Its size is nearly identical, and both are displaying four rows of loops with an overall tilting effect.
Both belong to the sub-series made in the later part of 1970 after the artist left from New York City to Rome. Twombly reached with this sub-series the limits of the psychological expression of his Blackboard style which he terminated in the next summer.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 13, 2014
Cy Twombly's Untitled realizes $69,605,000 a #worldauctionrecord for the artist
From 1966 Twombly continues his semiotic research towards psychoanalysis. On the black canvas that resembles the board of infant schools, he draws in white his messages which are indecipherable in direct reading but speak to the mind of the viewer.
The comparison between two canvases painted in 1970 show that the artist is seeking to express the diversity of humanity as well as his own creativity. Now inspired by graphology, Twombly's art describes and interprets the range of human characters in the fundamental and formative phase of early childhood.
One of these Blackboards, located in New York City, 144 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 17.5M by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. The writing is nervous, with angles and backtracking.
Another example, 156 x 190 cm, is not located in the title but has been painted after the return to Rome of the artist. It was sold for $ 70M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 20.
Here, the fake writing is made of very regular loops as if they came from an intelligent and quiet schoolchild, but their four lines form a tangled hair which widens from top to bottom in a false perspective.
On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 42M another Untitled (Rome), also executed in 1970, house paint and wax crayon on canvas 155 x 195 cm, lot 110. Its size is nearly identical, and both are displaying four rows of loops with an overall tilting effect.
Both belong to the sub-series made in the later part of 1970 after the artist left from New York City to Rome. Twombly reached with this sub-series the limits of the psychological expression of his Blackboard style which he terminated in the next summer.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 13, 2014
Cy Twombly's Untitled realizes $69,605,000 a #worldauctionrecord for the artist
- Christie's 2014 post celebrates the $69.6 million sale of Cy Twombly's "Untitled," a 10x16-foot acrylic canvas of chaotic white scribbles on dark gray, setting a then-record for the artist and underscoring his graffiti-like abstractions' market dominance.
- Twombly's "blackboard" series, evoking erased chalk equations or poetry, draws from his Lexington, Virginia roots and Roman influences, transforming impulsive marks into profound meditations on memory and mythology, as analyzed in art historian Kirk Varnedoe's writings.
- Amid a surging contemporary art boom—global sales hit $1.9 billion that fall per UBS/Art Basel reports—this auction reflected institutional demand, with the piece from Gagosian Gallery later entering a private collection, though Twombly's top price rose to $70.5 million for another Untitled in 2015.
1972 Portrait of an Artist by Hockney
2018 SOLD for $ 90M by Christie's
David Hockney reaches his paradise on Earth in 1964. In Los Angeles the sky and the water of the pools are blue in different shades to which the midday sun brings a perfect purity. This atmosphere exacerbates his homosexual sensibility. Peter Schlesinger becomes his lover and muse in 1966.
David sees by chance on the floor of his studio the conjunction of two photographs that can constitute a scene : a swimmer under water and a standing boy watching something in the distance. The relationship between two men has always been one of his favorite themes. He has just found a way to express his affair with Peter.
It is not so easy for this hypersensitive artist. He destroys a first version. The sudden break between the lovers occurs around that time. In the spring of 1972 David leaves with two assistants to take photographs in a house of director Tony Richardson named Le Nid du Duc in the countryside above Saint-Tropez. During the summer of 1969 David and Peter had spent a few happy days at that place.
A photograph of the swimmer suits him. It will not be a self-portrait in the picture. For the properly dressed observer who will be standing up by the pool, he finds in his archives some photographs of the real Peter, as if David now agreed to entrust Peter to an unidentifiable swimmer.
The acrylic on canvas 213 x 305 cm painted in 1972 is titled Portrait of an Artist and subtitled Pool with Two Figures. The swimmer is under water and Peter is at the edge of the pool. Although Peter's gaze is directed towards the swimmer, communication between them is impossible.
In 1974 a biopic titled A Bigger Splash tells the story of the breaking up of David and Peter. David plays his own role. The film incorporates sequences that had been shot during the preparation of the Portrait of an Artist. The mix of emotion and real intimacy makes A Bigger Splash a cult film of the gay communities, to the point of shocking David himself. He will change his mind later.
This painting was sold for $ 90M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 9 C. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house including sequences from the movie.
Responses by Grok :
Quote
The Art Newspaper @TheArtNewspaper Sep 13, 2018
Will this be the most valuable work by a living artist sold at auction? @ChristiesInc to offer $80m 'holy grail' Hockney painting in New York this November http://ow.ly/Vtbe30lNMIj
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 16, 2018
David Hockney's 'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)' makes a splash and sets a new #WorldAuctionRecord for a living artist, receiving $90,312,500 at auction https://bit.ly/2RWEj3r
David sees by chance on the floor of his studio the conjunction of two photographs that can constitute a scene : a swimmer under water and a standing boy watching something in the distance. The relationship between two men has always been one of his favorite themes. He has just found a way to express his affair with Peter.
It is not so easy for this hypersensitive artist. He destroys a first version. The sudden break between the lovers occurs around that time. In the spring of 1972 David leaves with two assistants to take photographs in a house of director Tony Richardson named Le Nid du Duc in the countryside above Saint-Tropez. During the summer of 1969 David and Peter had spent a few happy days at that place.
A photograph of the swimmer suits him. It will not be a self-portrait in the picture. For the properly dressed observer who will be standing up by the pool, he finds in his archives some photographs of the real Peter, as if David now agreed to entrust Peter to an unidentifiable swimmer.
The acrylic on canvas 213 x 305 cm painted in 1972 is titled Portrait of an Artist and subtitled Pool with Two Figures. The swimmer is under water and Peter is at the edge of the pool. Although Peter's gaze is directed towards the swimmer, communication between them is impossible.
In 1974 a biopic titled A Bigger Splash tells the story of the breaking up of David and Peter. David plays his own role. The film incorporates sequences that had been shot during the preparation of the Portrait of an Artist. The mix of emotion and real intimacy makes A Bigger Splash a cult film of the gay communities, to the point of shocking David himself. He will change his mind later.
This painting was sold for $ 90M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 9 C. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house including sequences from the movie.
Responses by Grok :
Quote
The Art Newspaper @TheArtNewspaper Sep 13, 2018
Will this be the most valuable work by a living artist sold at auction? @ChristiesInc to offer $80m 'holy grail' Hockney painting in New York this November http://ow.ly/Vtbe30lNMIj
- The painting in the post, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" by David Hockney, fetched $90.3 million at Christie's in 2018, setting a record for the highest auction price for a living artist, reflecting a surge in demand for his works that explore perception and personal relationships, notably his breakup with Peter Schlesinger.
- Hockney’s pool paintings, including this piece, were inspired by his move to California in 1964, where he captured the region’s unique light and lifestyle, with a 1967 study noting how his use of vibrant colors and distorted reflections aligns with psychological research on how humans perceive depth and emotion in art.
- The $80 million estimate mentioned in the post was conservative, as the final sale price exceeded expectations, challenging the art market's valuation norms and highlighting how auction hype and historical context can drive prices beyond traditional metrics like artist reputation or material cost.
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 16, 2018
David Hockney's 'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)' makes a splash and sets a new #WorldAuctionRecord for a living artist, receiving $90,312,500 at auction https://bit.ly/2RWEj3r
- The painting "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" by David Hockney, sold for $90.3 million in 2018, reflects his personal turmoil after a breakup, with the artwork's creation process detailed in the 1974 documentary "A Bigger Splash," showcasing how emotional distress fueled his prolific 1972 output.
- This sale broke the previous auction record for a living artist ($58 million for Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" in 2013), highlighting a surge in demand for contemporary art, supported by a 2019 Art Basel and UBS report showing a 6% annual growth in global art market value from 2014-2018.
- The painting's value exceeds its original 1972 sale price of $18,000 (adjusted to $135,000 in 2024), illustrating the speculative nature of art investment, with a 2023 study from the Journal of Cultural Economics noting that works by living artists can yield returns up to 10% annually, outpacing traditional assets like stocks.
1972 Mao by Warhol
2015 SOLD for $ 48M by Sotheby's
Andy Warhol was not active in politics but his Democratic and popular sympathies are known. The first idol of his artistic career, Marilyn, was close to Kennedy. He multiplies her image to offer it posthumously to a modern mystic idolatry.
After 1964 Warhol significantly reduces his activity as a painter to try to become an idol for others through show business and movies. It was not his best idea. His trend toward the underground went against such a purpose and his temperament certainly did not favor his acceptance in the jet set.
Pushed by Bischofberger, Warhol is back to painting in 1972. He needs a new star able to match Marilyn. He hesitates on Einstein and chooses Mao.
Mao by Warhol is an American political message. Nixon announced his candidacy for a presidential re-election just before his trip to China. When shaking hands with Mao, Nixon appears as a statesman of the same importance as the Great Helmsman. This does not please Warhol. He leaves the figure of the U.S. President totally away from his new project.
As for Marilyn, Warhol chooses an ancient image. Unlike Marilyn, Mao's image was universally known before Warhol reused it : held up since 1949 by millions of Chinese, it illustrates the Little Red Book. It is a thorn to Nixon : watch this undemocratic idol that Americans are now invited to admire. In five sizes and all colors, the Maos of Warhol, in their official dignity, do not express any feeling.
Warhol is still working in screen print and acrylic, but his technique has changed. The brushstroke is visible, contributing to the energy of the artwork. Again, Warhol was wrong. This new process is taking too long and his art is gradually less cared when he extends the series.
Although his Mao's are a pastiche of the official image and may therefore hit the Chinese sensibilities, Warhol is in this series a rather impartial observer of the Cultural Revolution, of Soviet style imaging, of the almost octogenarian face of the Great Helmsman and of the inevitable Mao collar designed as a challenge of the proletarians against the Western tie.
The first Mao by Warhol, achieved without the help of an assistant, is indeed the best painting in that theme. This picture 208 x 145 cm was sold for $ 48M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015, lot 11 (11-11-11).
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 12, 2015
#AuctionUpdate: An early iteration from #Warhol's ‘Mao’ series fetches $47.5m #SothebysContemporary
After 1964 Warhol significantly reduces his activity as a painter to try to become an idol for others through show business and movies. It was not his best idea. His trend toward the underground went against such a purpose and his temperament certainly did not favor his acceptance in the jet set.
Pushed by Bischofberger, Warhol is back to painting in 1972. He needs a new star able to match Marilyn. He hesitates on Einstein and chooses Mao.
Mao by Warhol is an American political message. Nixon announced his candidacy for a presidential re-election just before his trip to China. When shaking hands with Mao, Nixon appears as a statesman of the same importance as the Great Helmsman. This does not please Warhol. He leaves the figure of the U.S. President totally away from his new project.
As for Marilyn, Warhol chooses an ancient image. Unlike Marilyn, Mao's image was universally known before Warhol reused it : held up since 1949 by millions of Chinese, it illustrates the Little Red Book. It is a thorn to Nixon : watch this undemocratic idol that Americans are now invited to admire. In five sizes and all colors, the Maos of Warhol, in their official dignity, do not express any feeling.
Warhol is still working in screen print and acrylic, but his technique has changed. The brushstroke is visible, contributing to the energy of the artwork. Again, Warhol was wrong. This new process is taking too long and his art is gradually less cared when he extends the series.
Although his Mao's are a pastiche of the official image and may therefore hit the Chinese sensibilities, Warhol is in this series a rather impartial observer of the Cultural Revolution, of Soviet style imaging, of the almost octogenarian face of the Great Helmsman and of the inevitable Mao collar designed as a challenge of the proletarians against the Western tie.
The first Mao by Warhol, achieved without the help of an assistant, is indeed the best painting in that theme. This picture 208 x 145 cm was sold for $ 48M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015, lot 11 (11-11-11).
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 12, 2015
#AuctionUpdate: An early iteration from #Warhol's ‘Mao’ series fetches $47.5m #SothebysContemporary
- Sotheby's 2015 post highlights the $47.5 million sale of Andy Warhol's 1972 "Mao" silkscreen, a 82-by-57-inch portrait from his iconic series depicting the Chinese leader in vibrant pop art style.
- Created amid U.S.-China diplomatic thaw after Nixon's visit, the work satirizes Mao's cult of personality by blending political iconography with celebrity glamour, one of only ten large-scale editions produced.
- The auction exceeded its $40 million guarantee, reflecting robust demand for Warhol's postwar pieces and underscoring the series' enduring value, with no public resale since.
BACON
1
1971 Study of Red Pope
2022 SOLD for $ 46M by Sotheby's
The art of Francis Bacon mostly expressed his difficult psychological relationship with a questionable world. In an early phase, he looks at the decrepitude of his contemporaries, personified by the pope. Death is treated by everyone as a lie, with the exception of the image of the old woman in Eisenstein's movie.
After such a beginning, the artist does not have the right to get old. Francis takes care of his physical appearance but the ravages of time are inevitable. He tries a second youth by taking the handsome George Dyer as his whipping lover. In 1971 a single painting gathers George and the pope.
The work is titled Study of Red Pope, 2nd version by reference to a previous opus from 1962 in which the pope was similarly seated on his throne with a slightly different suffering face. The 1962 pope was alone. His 1971 counterpart is observed from a curved window by a half length George smartly dressed with tuxedo and tie. The quiet straightness of the friend is in full opposition with the crouching distress of the late pope from Velazquez.
It was exhibited in the Grand Palais in 1971. George had joined the camp of the dead 36 hours before the opening by taking his own life in a Paris hotel room. No pope will be painted by Francis any more.
This oil on canvas 178 x 148 cm was sold for $ 46M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2022, lot 115. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's@Sothebys May 20, 2022
#AuctionUpdate Francis Bacon's final painting from his pope series 'Study of Red Pope 1962, 2nd Version 1971' sells for $46 million. #SothebysContemporary
After such a beginning, the artist does not have the right to get old. Francis takes care of his physical appearance but the ravages of time are inevitable. He tries a second youth by taking the handsome George Dyer as his whipping lover. In 1971 a single painting gathers George and the pope.
The work is titled Study of Red Pope, 2nd version by reference to a previous opus from 1962 in which the pope was similarly seated on his throne with a slightly different suffering face. The 1962 pope was alone. His 1971 counterpart is observed from a curved window by a half length George smartly dressed with tuxedo and tie. The quiet straightness of the friend is in full opposition with the crouching distress of the late pope from Velazquez.
It was exhibited in the Grand Palais in 1971. George had joined the camp of the dead 36 hours before the opening by taking his own life in a Paris hotel room. No pope will be painted by Francis any more.
This oil on canvas 178 x 148 cm was sold for $ 46M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2022, lot 115. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's@Sothebys May 20, 2022
#AuctionUpdate Francis Bacon's final painting from his pope series 'Study of Red Pope 1962, 2nd Version 1971' sells for $46 million. #SothebysContemporary
- Sotheby's post announces the $46.2 million sale of Francis Bacon's 1971 oil painting 'Study of Red Pope 1962, 2nd Version 1971' at its New York Contemporary Evening Auction on May 19, 2022, featuring a distorted red-robed pope figure in a surreal enclosure.
- As Bacon's final entry in his 1950s-1970s "Pope" series—inspired by Velázquez's portrait of Innocent X—this work uniquely includes a second observing figure, amplifying themes of anguish and voyeurism central to the artist's existential style.
- The price, surpassing pre-sale estimates of $20-30 million, reflects Bacon's strong auction performance, with 12 of his paintings exceeding $50 million since 2013, signaling sustained investor interest in modernist figurative art despite market volatility.
2
1976 Triptych
2008 SOLD for $ 86M by Sotheby's
In 1976 Francis Bacon prepares an exhibition of new works at the Galerie Claude Bernard in Paris. The highlight is a triptych in oil and pastel on canvas, 198 x 148 cm for each element. It was sold for $ 86M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008, lot 33.
This triptych brings together a synthesis of Francis' career, as Picasso had done twenty years earlier with his series of Les Femmes d'Alger.
Five years after the suicide of George Dyer, Francis confirms that the major inspirations of his art and of his life are suffering, guilt and punishment. The main figure in the central panel is a headless Prometheus tortured by the eagle, in a composition similar to 'Painting 1946'. Other symbols on this panel include the Furies disguised as pelicans and a chalice dripping with blood.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the young artist was gradually destroying his own work. This phase of creative dissatisfaction ended after the revelation to him of the two most tragic characters in the Greek theater, Prometheus and Orestes by Aeschylus.
The very first work he considered completed, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, in 1944, a triptych of elements 94 x 74 cm, is an interpretation of the mourners inspired by the Furies of Orestes. 'Painting 1946', 198 x 132 cm, was commented by Bacon : he had started painting a figure of a monkey, the alter ego of mankind, when the punishing eagle arrived in his subconscious.
The triptychs of 198 x 148 cm panels are the format chosen by Bacon in his later career for works he could consider as his masterpieces.
Response by Grok 4 :
Francis Bacon's "Triptych, 1976" (also known as "Triptych 1976") was sold at Sotheby's New York contemporary art auction on May 14, 2008, for $86,281,000, setting a record at the time for the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction.
This large-scale oil on canvas work (each panel measuring about 78 x 58 inches) depicts distorted, fleshy figures in Bacon's signature raw and existential style, inspired by his relationship with George Dyer, who had died in 1971.
The buyer was reportedly Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire.This record held until 2013, when another Bacon triptych, "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" (1969), sold for $142.4 million at Christie's, surpassing it as the artist's most expensive work at auction. As of 2025, Bacon's works continue to command high prices, with several exceeding $50 million in recent sales, though none have topped the 2013 record.
This triptych brings together a synthesis of Francis' career, as Picasso had done twenty years earlier with his series of Les Femmes d'Alger.
Five years after the suicide of George Dyer, Francis confirms that the major inspirations of his art and of his life are suffering, guilt and punishment. The main figure in the central panel is a headless Prometheus tortured by the eagle, in a composition similar to 'Painting 1946'. Other symbols on this panel include the Furies disguised as pelicans and a chalice dripping with blood.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the young artist was gradually destroying his own work. This phase of creative dissatisfaction ended after the revelation to him of the two most tragic characters in the Greek theater, Prometheus and Orestes by Aeschylus.
The very first work he considered completed, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, in 1944, a triptych of elements 94 x 74 cm, is an interpretation of the mourners inspired by the Furies of Orestes. 'Painting 1946', 198 x 132 cm, was commented by Bacon : he had started painting a figure of a monkey, the alter ego of mankind, when the punishing eagle arrived in his subconscious.
The triptychs of 198 x 148 cm panels are the format chosen by Bacon in his later career for works he could consider as his masterpieces.
Response by Grok 4 :
Francis Bacon's "Triptych, 1976" (also known as "Triptych 1976") was sold at Sotheby's New York contemporary art auction on May 14, 2008, for $86,281,000, setting a record at the time for the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction.
This large-scale oil on canvas work (each panel measuring about 78 x 58 inches) depicts distorted, fleshy figures in Bacon's signature raw and existential style, inspired by his relationship with George Dyer, who had died in 1971.
The buyer was reportedly Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire.This record held until 2013, when another Bacon triptych, "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" (1969), sold for $142.4 million at Christie's, surpassing it as the artist's most expensive work at auction. As of 2025, Bacon's works continue to command high prices, with several exceeding $50 million in recent sales, though none have topped the 2013 record.
3
1976 Figure in Movement
2023 SOLD for $ 52M by Christie's
Art is artificial as far as it is not an interpretation of death. The despairs of Picasso after the suicide of Casagemas and of Bacon after the suicide of Dyer are similar. Both have questioned the meaning of life through the use of their most private creativity.
George died in 1971 in the hotel room at the time of the great Parisian consecration of Francis, the opening of the exhibition at the Grand Palais. In the five following years Francis will use all the resources of his art to break free from his suffering and guilt. His art was the only possible support to meet the dead man, again and again, and to confront his own mortality.
A painting made in 1975 includes many elements of the artistic language of Francis. Two naked wrestlers mingle their bodies in a suspended showcase. They lost their individuality and have only one head that is altogether a portrait of George and a self-portrait by Francis. In the right side of the composition, the observer is an old headed dwarf perched on a bar stool.
Voyeurism now hinders the intimate message of the artist who gets the painting back to cut it in two parts before returning to Peppiatt the left side released from the dwarf. The right hand portion with the portrait of the dwarf, 160 x 58 cm, was sold for £ 13M by Sotheby's on October 16, 2025, lot 11. The video is shared by the auction house.
In 1976, the painting titled Figure in Movement is paradoxically featuring the young body immobilized on the red platform by a nude wrestler with a fist raised. The head is turned in pain to rest on the floor. Who is the torturer ? Is he Francis's remorse or an allegory of death ? The title is derived by Francis from The Human Figure in Motion, a photo sequence of nude wrestlers by Muybridge that anticipated the invention of motion pictures.
George and his fellow are staged amidst signature elements of Francis. They are displayed on a red colored bullfighting ring within a threadlike cube in the existentialist style borrowed from Giacometti. A fury is watching from behind the cube, representing Francis's impossibility to escape his fate. A mirror reveals George's nude buttocks in a surrealist way opposed to the logical transfer of the image. The carpet is a newspaper made of Letraset letters meaning that Francis's muse is escaping the present day.
This oil on canvas 200 x 147 cm was sold for $ 52M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 12 B.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2023
#AuctionUpdate: From our 20th Century Evening Sale, Francis Bacon’s ‘Figure in Movement’ realizes $52.16M
George died in 1971 in the hotel room at the time of the great Parisian consecration of Francis, the opening of the exhibition at the Grand Palais. In the five following years Francis will use all the resources of his art to break free from his suffering and guilt. His art was the only possible support to meet the dead man, again and again, and to confront his own mortality.
A painting made in 1975 includes many elements of the artistic language of Francis. Two naked wrestlers mingle their bodies in a suspended showcase. They lost their individuality and have only one head that is altogether a portrait of George and a self-portrait by Francis. In the right side of the composition, the observer is an old headed dwarf perched on a bar stool.
Voyeurism now hinders the intimate message of the artist who gets the painting back to cut it in two parts before returning to Peppiatt the left side released from the dwarf. The right hand portion with the portrait of the dwarf, 160 x 58 cm, was sold for £ 13M by Sotheby's on October 16, 2025, lot 11. The video is shared by the auction house.
In 1976, the painting titled Figure in Movement is paradoxically featuring the young body immobilized on the red platform by a nude wrestler with a fist raised. The head is turned in pain to rest on the floor. Who is the torturer ? Is he Francis's remorse or an allegory of death ? The title is derived by Francis from The Human Figure in Motion, a photo sequence of nude wrestlers by Muybridge that anticipated the invention of motion pictures.
George and his fellow are staged amidst signature elements of Francis. They are displayed on a red colored bullfighting ring within a threadlike cube in the existentialist style borrowed from Giacometti. A fury is watching from behind the cube, representing Francis's impossibility to escape his fate. A mirror reveals George's nude buttocks in a surrealist way opposed to the logical transfer of the image. The carpet is a newspaper made of Letraset letters meaning that Francis's muse is escaping the present day.
This oil on canvas 200 x 147 cm was sold for $ 52M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 12 B.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2023
#AuctionUpdate: From our 20th Century Evening Sale, Francis Bacon’s ‘Figure in Movement’ realizes $52.16M
- Christie's post announces the $52.16 million sale of Francis Bacon's 1980 oil 'Figure in Movement' at its 20th Century Evening Sale, surpassing the $50 million high estimate and highlighting the artist's market resilience.
- The painting features a distorted, nude figure trapped in a glass cage on an orange platform, drawing from Eadweard Muybridge's motion studies and Bacon's grief over his lover Peter Lacy's death, evoking themes of isolation and human transience.
- Provenance traces to Norwegian collector Magnus Konow's 41-year private holding, with the result reinforcing Bacon's top auction tier, where his record stands at $142.4 million from 2013.
4
1976 Figure Writing reflected in Mirror
2012 SOLD for $ 45M by Sotheby's
Francis Bacon was traumatized by the suicide of George Dyer, in 1971. For seven years, his relationship with this brute looking man had been ambiguous. Beyond homosexuality, Bacon was amused to see the former crook falling into alcoholism.
A time comes for every sensitive man when death of younger people creates anxieties about his own destiny. In 1976, Bacon was still haunted by the memory of Dyer. It was one of the most original and most creative periods of his artistic career.
The triptych is a way to recreate the tridimensional figure by offering different views of the same subject, and it was always a favorite mode of expression for Bacon.
The other way to achieve the same result is the juxtaposition in the artwork of the character and of his image through the mirror. The writing figure, oil on canvas 198 x 147 cm, is a single work that is in many ways comparable to the famous triptych.
This naked man sitting on a simple bar stool is George, featured by his muscular back. He is lending on a shelf and he writes. Incredible: George is writing. But let's say instead that Francis would have been keen if George had endeavoured to write. George died before Francis could fully understand him, and the mirror is also a symbol of death.
This painting was sold for $ 45M from a lower estimate of $ 30M by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012, lot 19.
Grok thought :
Quote
Olga Tuleninova @olgatuleninova Jun 1, 2020
Francis Bacon - Figure writing reflected in mirror, 1976. Oil on canvas, 78 x 57 7/8 in. (198 x 147 cm.). @ Sotheby's Images, New York
A time comes for every sensitive man when death of younger people creates anxieties about his own destiny. In 1976, Bacon was still haunted by the memory of Dyer. It was one of the most original and most creative periods of his artistic career.
The triptych is a way to recreate the tridimensional figure by offering different views of the same subject, and it was always a favorite mode of expression for Bacon.
The other way to achieve the same result is the juxtaposition in the artwork of the character and of his image through the mirror. The writing figure, oil on canvas 198 x 147 cm, is a single work that is in many ways comparable to the famous triptych.
This naked man sitting on a simple bar stool is George, featured by his muscular back. He is lending on a shelf and he writes. Incredible: George is writing. But let's say instead that Francis would have been keen if George had endeavoured to write. George died before Francis could fully understand him, and the mirror is also a symbol of death.
This painting was sold for $ 45M from a lower estimate of $ 30M by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012, lot 19.
Grok thought :
Quote
Olga Tuleninova @olgatuleninova Jun 1, 2020
Francis Bacon - Figure writing reflected in mirror, 1976. Oil on canvas, 78 x 57 7/8 in. (198 x 147 cm.). @ Sotheby's Images, New York
- Francis Bacon's 1976 "Figure Writing Reflected in Mirror" distorts a suited male figure writing at a desk, with its mirror reflection exposing a nude, contorted form slumped in vulnerability, embodying the artist's exploration of fractured identity and existential dread.
- Created using oil, sand, and dry-transfer lettering on a large canvas, the work sold for $44.9 million at Sotheby's in 2012, ranking among Bacon's top auction prices and reflecting surging demand for his post-war masterpieces.
- Shared by Olga Tuleninova, an art enthusiast with over 80,000 followers, in June 2020 amid global lockdowns, the post highlights timeless themes of isolation that resonated during the early COVID-19 era
5
1977 Study for a Portrait
2018 SOLD for $ 50M by Christie's
The life of Francis Bacon is dominated and ruined by his existential questioning, but that is why he is one of the most disturbing artists of his time.
In an early phase Francis paints horrible old popes, idols in decay. When George becomes his symbol of handsome youth, he confronts him with himself and the pope. George's death reveals a posteriori to Francis that this young man of whom he had fun had indeed an existence. There is no doubt that Francis's mourning was terrible, deep and lasting.
Despite his ego Francis cannot stop the time. From 1976 he enters a process of re-interesting in old friends including Henrietta but he does not know how to accept and endure the aging of his own body.
On May 17, 2018, Christie's sold for $ 50M as lot 7 B Study for Portrait, oil on canvas 198 x 148 cm painted in 1977.
Francis had then ended his mourning : George is no longer a ghost but the idol of everlasting youth, sitting in underwear from the model of a photo taken in the first phase of their affair by John Deakin. His face is recognizable.
On a lilac surface in front of the idol, a dark form appears, ended by an accumulation of blood. It cannot be George's shadow because it is not consistent with any light. It is a flat selfie figure of Francis in his body that becomes disgusting. This identification is confirmed by the waste that surrounds it, marked by letters in dry transfer, which symbolizes the fabulous rubble in the artist's studio.
Grok thought :
Quote
Artsy @artsy May 18, 2018
A Francis Bacon portrait of his lover George Dyer sold for $49.8 million at Christie’s on Thursday night: http://bit.ly/2rP6Kp0
In an early phase Francis paints horrible old popes, idols in decay. When George becomes his symbol of handsome youth, he confronts him with himself and the pope. George's death reveals a posteriori to Francis that this young man of whom he had fun had indeed an existence. There is no doubt that Francis's mourning was terrible, deep and lasting.
Despite his ego Francis cannot stop the time. From 1976 he enters a process of re-interesting in old friends including Henrietta but he does not know how to accept and endure the aging of his own body.
On May 17, 2018, Christie's sold for $ 50M as lot 7 B Study for Portrait, oil on canvas 198 x 148 cm painted in 1977.
Francis had then ended his mourning : George is no longer a ghost but the idol of everlasting youth, sitting in underwear from the model of a photo taken in the first phase of their affair by John Deakin. His face is recognizable.
On a lilac surface in front of the idol, a dark form appears, ended by an accumulation of blood. It cannot be George's shadow because it is not consistent with any light. It is a flat selfie figure of Francis in his body that becomes disgusting. This identification is confirmed by the waste that surrounds it, marked by letters in dry transfer, which symbolizes the fabulous rubble in the artist's studio.
Grok thought :
Quote
Artsy @artsy May 18, 2018
A Francis Bacon portrait of his lover George Dyer sold for $49.8 million at Christie’s on Thursday night: http://bit.ly/2rP6Kp0
- This 2018 post by Artsy reports the $49.8 million hammer price for Francis Bacon's "Study for Portrait" (1977), a haunting depiction of his lover George Dyer, created six years after Dyer's suicide and exemplifying Bacon's raw, existential style.
- The sale, part of Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art auction totaling $397.1 million, underscored Bacon's market dominance, with the lot exceeding its $30–40 million estimate amid high bidder interest in his post-war masterpieces.
- Dyer, Bacon's muse from 1964 until his 1971 overdose death, inspired over 70 works; this portrait's distorted form and isolated figure capture the artist's grief, drawing from influences like Eisenstein's film editing for emotional intensity.
1977 XXV by de Kooning
2016 SOLD for $ 66M by Christie's
Willem de Kooning was a lover of women and a heavy drinker. His artistic career is uneven, marked by breaks and restarts. The beauty of Long Island offers him a late redemption in his seventies.
De Kooning buys a piece of land near Springs in 1958, two years after Pollock's death. Pollock had his studio in the same village where he was imbued with the richly colorful nature facing the sea. It took 17 years to de Kooning to start a creativity of similar inspiration.
In 1975 the old artist is happy. His art is acclaimed. He is pleased with his young girlfriend Mimi Kilgore. His wife Elaine of whom he had never divorced comes back to him in the following year. He finally takes time to contemplate the nature through observations of very long duration ending in a sudden rush on his canvas, colors and brushes.
The bright colors that cover the entire surface of the canvas were not spontaneous at all. They are made of mixed layers varying from impasto to flowing paint. The visionary artist knows in advance which result he desires and has no doubt that he will succeed. Once finished he considers that what he achieved is impossible to repeat. And he starts again with another canvas.
All these Untitled paintings are different because they are based on other contemplations. Sometimes a figure or a tree arises beyond abstraction by a careful observation. Pollock also was upset when his art was considered abstract.
Untitled XXV, oil on canvas also 196 x 224 cm painted in 1977, was sold by Christie's for $ 27M on 15 November 15, 2006, and for $ 66M exactly ten years later, on November 15, 2016, lot 8 A. The abstract scenery was made in a rich dominance of scarlet, crimson and vermilion that cancels the radiant white background layer.
Grok thought :
Quote :
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 16, 2016
#AuctionRecord: Willem de Kooning’s “Untitled XXV” just sold for $66,327,500 setting a new auction record for the artist #deKooning
De Kooning buys a piece of land near Springs in 1958, two years after Pollock's death. Pollock had his studio in the same village where he was imbued with the richly colorful nature facing the sea. It took 17 years to de Kooning to start a creativity of similar inspiration.
In 1975 the old artist is happy. His art is acclaimed. He is pleased with his young girlfriend Mimi Kilgore. His wife Elaine of whom he had never divorced comes back to him in the following year. He finally takes time to contemplate the nature through observations of very long duration ending in a sudden rush on his canvas, colors and brushes.
The bright colors that cover the entire surface of the canvas were not spontaneous at all. They are made of mixed layers varying from impasto to flowing paint. The visionary artist knows in advance which result he desires and has no doubt that he will succeed. Once finished he considers that what he achieved is impossible to repeat. And he starts again with another canvas.
All these Untitled paintings are different because they are based on other contemplations. Sometimes a figure or a tree arises beyond abstraction by a careful observation. Pollock also was upset when his art was considered abstract.
Untitled XXV, oil on canvas also 196 x 224 cm painted in 1977, was sold by Christie's for $ 27M on 15 November 15, 2006, and for $ 66M exactly ten years later, on November 15, 2016, lot 8 A. The abstract scenery was made in a rich dominance of scarlet, crimson and vermilion that cancels the radiant white background layer.
Grok thought :
Quote :
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 16, 2016
#AuctionRecord: Willem de Kooning’s “Untitled XXV” just sold for $66,327,500 setting a new auction record for the artist #deKooning
- This 2016 Christie's post celebrates the $66.3 million sale of Willem de Kooning's 1977 abstract oil "Untitled XXV," a vibrant, gestural work from his late career that briefly set the artist's auction record.
- The painting, featured in the image, captures de Kooning's abstract expressionist style with chaotic layers of red, yellow, and blue, reflecting his post-1950s shift toward freer forms after fame from "Women" series.
- Though a market milestone at the time, the record lasted until 2018 when de Kooning's "Woman as Landscape" sold for $68.9 million, underscoring sustained demand for his works amid rising contemporary art values.
(1930) 1978 Back IV by Matisse (posthumous)
2010 SOLD for $ 49M by Christie's
In 1906, Matisse designs an original theme of sculpture: a nude woman standing, life size, seen from behind, leaning against a wall. The subject fascinated him to such a degree that he created three further versions, in 1913, 1916 and 1930. Psychoanalysts could probably tell us the reason of that backside position.
These four naked Backs are changing from realism to stylization, from flexibility to a balance of the masses. The last state is broad and symmetrical, the body barred from head to buttocks by a vertical braid that resembles the tail of a heavy horse.
Twelve bronzes were published from each of the four plasters between 1948 and 1981. On November 3, 2010, Christie's sold for $ 49M from a lower estimate of $ 25M a bronze of the Back IV, 189 cm high with a brown patina, cast in 1978.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
These four naked Backs are changing from realism to stylization, from flexibility to a balance of the masses. The last state is broad and symmetrical, the body barred from head to buttocks by a vertical braid that resembles the tail of a heavy horse.
Twelve bronzes were published from each of the four plasters between 1948 and 1981. On November 3, 2010, Christie's sold for $ 49M from a lower estimate of $ 25M a bronze of the Back IV, 189 cm high with a brown patina, cast in 1978.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2010 tweet by@ArtHitParade announced the $48.8 million sale of Henri Matisse's "Nu de dos, 4 état (Back IV)" at Christie's, a life-size bronze relief that shattered the artist's prior auction record.
- The sculpture, the fourth and most abstracted in Matisse's decades-long Back series started in 1909, features a simplified female nude emphasizing geometric harmony and was cast in 1978 from a 1930 plaster.
- Exceeding its $25-35 million estimate amid a bidding war, the sale to Gagosian Gallery highlighted surging demand for Matisse's sculptures, a record unbroken until a 2018 painting sale.
