Head Triptych by Bacon
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Bacon Bacon 1963-1970 Later Bacons
Chronology : 1963 1966 1974 1975 1976 1979
See also : Bacon Bacon 1963-1970 Later Bacons
Chronology : 1963 1966 1974 1975 1976 1979
Special Report
Three Studies Symbolism
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Francis Bacon's triptychs are among the most symbolically charged works in 20th-century art, serving as a structural and thematic cornerstone of his oeuvre. He produced around 28 large-scale triptychs (typically three panels of ~198 x 147 cm each) and many smaller ones, favoring the format for its ability to present images in series without imposing linear narrative. Bacon described the triptych as a "balanced unit" that allowed him to explore time, motion, psychological fragmentation, and existential horror through rhythmic repetition, sequential distortion, and non-literal storytelling—drawing from influences like old master altarpieces (e.g., Rubens' crucifixions), Muybridge's motion photography, photo-booth sequences, and Greek tragedy.The triptych format enabled Bacon to avoid conventional illustration or storytelling, instead creating a sense of cyclical inevitability, temporal progression, or inescapable confrontation with suffering, death, and the animalistic underbelly of humanity. Symbolically, the three panels often function as:
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Francis Bacon's triptychs are among the most symbolically charged works in 20th-century art, serving as a structural and thematic cornerstone of his oeuvre. He produced around 28 large-scale triptychs (typically three panels of ~198 x 147 cm each) and many smaller ones, favoring the format for its ability to present images in series without imposing linear narrative. Bacon described the triptych as a "balanced unit" that allowed him to explore time, motion, psychological fragmentation, and existential horror through rhythmic repetition, sequential distortion, and non-literal storytelling—drawing from influences like old master altarpieces (e.g., Rubens' crucifixions), Muybridge's motion photography, photo-booth sequences, and Greek tragedy.The triptych format enabled Bacon to avoid conventional illustration or storytelling, instead creating a sense of cyclical inevitability, temporal progression, or inescapable confrontation with suffering, death, and the animalistic underbelly of humanity. Symbolically, the three panels often function as:
- A modern secular altarpiece: Evoking religious triptychs (e.g., predella bases or crucifixion scenes) but subverting them—replacing salvation or redemption with unrelenting anguish, isolation, and the absence of divine meaning. Bacon, an atheist raised in Catholic Ireland, used the form to desecrate sacred iconography, turning it into a metaphor for human brutality and existential void.
- Temporal and psychological unfolding: Panels suggest motion (e.g., a head turning, a figure decaying across views) or stages of an event (before/during/after trauma), evoking Muybridge-like seriality or film frames. This creates illusory depth, repetition, or fragmentation—mirroring the mind's inability to escape cycles of pain, guilt, or decay.
- Isolation amid connection: Figures are often caged, isolated in voids, or linked by abstract devices (e.g., curving bars, mirrors), symbolizing relational tension, entrapment, and the solitude of existence even in company.
- The scream and the flesh: Central motifs like open mouths, contorted bodies, and violent color slashes (crimson on pale flesh, searing orange grounds) represent primal urges (Freud's id), the raw scream of being, and mortality's erosion of the self—often tied to personal losses (e.g., George Dyer's suicide) or broader horrors (war, genocide).
1963 Henrietta Moraes
2022 SOLD for £ 24.3M by Sotheby's
At the end of 1962, Francis Bacon conceives his new format dedicated to the psychological portrait of his friends : the oil on canvas in three parts 14 x 12 inches each (about 35 x 30 cm). The prototype titled Study for Three Heads is a hybrid featuring both Peter Lacy and himself.
These images are limited to the head, sometimes with a hand, near life size. The combination of the three views gives an increased presence of the model while compensating the fact that Francis is not a sculptor. The face is reconstructed on a post-cubist mode, with bright colors that meet the other theme of the inevitable decay of the flesh.
From that time Francis does not work any more directly with the model but also does not want doing it from memory. He relies for his images with the photos made by John Deakin, an affiliate in his Soho nights.
The first triptych head of a unique friend, executed around October 1963, is titled Three Studies of Portrait of Henrietta Moraes, of whom it is also the first named portrait by Bacon in any format. It was sold for £ 24.3M by Sotheby's on October 14, 2022, lot 112.
The palette is mainly crimson and white on a black background. She expresses her unconventional vitality. Her distorted face is nevertheless recognizable.
These images are limited to the head, sometimes with a hand, near life size. The combination of the three views gives an increased presence of the model while compensating the fact that Francis is not a sculptor. The face is reconstructed on a post-cubist mode, with bright colors that meet the other theme of the inevitable decay of the flesh.
From that time Francis does not work any more directly with the model but also does not want doing it from memory. He relies for his images with the photos made by John Deakin, an affiliate in his Soho nights.
The first triptych head of a unique friend, executed around October 1963, is titled Three Studies of Portrait of Henrietta Moraes, of whom it is also the first named portrait by Bacon in any format. It was sold for £ 24.3M by Sotheby's on October 14, 2022, lot 112.
The palette is mainly crimson and white on a black background. She expresses her unconventional vitality. Her distorted face is nevertheless recognizable.
1963 George Dyer
2017 SOLD for $ 52M by Christie's
At the turn of the 1960s the art world is demanding changes. Abstraction has taken up too much space and cancels the psychological observation. Francis Bacon then enjoys the top level of fame to such an extent that his sado-masochistic impulses are reversed : after Peter Lacy's death, Francis desires to dominate a young male muse.
George Dyer meets Francis's desire. His massive body evokes the masculine nudes sculpted by Michelangelo. His shabby life as a petty thief innocent of art excites Francis who creates the unverifiable story of their first encounter in 1963 during a burglary in his studio. Francis sometimes nicknames 'Sir George' this magnificent lover.
George has a weak personality that he vainly tries to offset by tobacco, drugs and alcohol. The colossus with feet of clay becomes for Francis a subject of study of the human contradictions. As ever Francis seeks through his models the mirror of his own complexity.
Francis grabs his brushes to exercise his new artistic quest. A homogeneous background enables to vary the expression. His very first study for a portrait of George is a triptych of 35 x 30 cm elements displaying the head in life size, painted in 1963.
That first triptych includes the distortions that erase the age of the sitter by demeaning the features of the face. It was sold for $ 52M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 38 B.
Francis twists the nose and the cheeks and adds vivid colors to better reveal the tensions but the overall features remain perfectly superimposable to the photographs of George. On a black background and with no information on the garment, this triple head that comes out of the shadows with an empty gaze is one of the most profound testimonies by Bacon on the psychological misery of human beings.
The work's three oil-on-canvas panels (each 14x12 inches) depict Dyer's distorted face in raw flesh tones against black voids, drawing from John Deakin photographs to evoke emotional turmoil, a technique Bacon refined amid his rising fame in the early 1960s.
George Dyer's Influence on Francis BaconGeorge Dyer (1934–1971), a former petty criminal from London's East End, met Francis Bacon in late 1963 (likely through mutual Soho circles, though myths of a burglary persist). Their relationship—intense, volatile, passionate, and often destructive—lasted until Dyer's suicide by overdose in a Paris hotel bathroom on October 30, 1971, just two days before the opening of Bacon's major retrospective at the Grand Palais. Dyer became Bacon's greatest muse, appearing in dozens of paintings (over 40 documented works feature him directly or indirectly), far more than any other sitter. His physical presence (muscular build, angular features, craggy profile) and emotional complexity profoundly shaped Bacon's art, amplifying themes of vulnerability, mortality, desire, brutality, and the fragility of the human body.
During Their Relationship (1963–1971)
George Dyer meets Francis's desire. His massive body evokes the masculine nudes sculpted by Michelangelo. His shabby life as a petty thief innocent of art excites Francis who creates the unverifiable story of their first encounter in 1963 during a burglary in his studio. Francis sometimes nicknames 'Sir George' this magnificent lover.
George has a weak personality that he vainly tries to offset by tobacco, drugs and alcohol. The colossus with feet of clay becomes for Francis a subject of study of the human contradictions. As ever Francis seeks through his models the mirror of his own complexity.
Francis grabs his brushes to exercise his new artistic quest. A homogeneous background enables to vary the expression. His very first study for a portrait of George is a triptych of 35 x 30 cm elements displaying the head in life size, painted in 1963.
That first triptych includes the distortions that erase the age of the sitter by demeaning the features of the face. It was sold for $ 52M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 38 B.
Francis twists the nose and the cheeks and adds vivid colors to better reveal the tensions but the overall features remain perfectly superimposable to the photographs of George. On a black background and with no information on the garment, this triple head that comes out of the shadows with an empty gaze is one of the most profound testimonies by Bacon on the psychological misery of human beings.
The work's three oil-on-canvas panels (each 14x12 inches) depict Dyer's distorted face in raw flesh tones against black voids, drawing from John Deakin photographs to evoke emotional turmoil, a technique Bacon refined amid his rising fame in the early 1960s.
George Dyer's Influence on Francis BaconGeorge Dyer (1934–1971), a former petty criminal from London's East End, met Francis Bacon in late 1963 (likely through mutual Soho circles, though myths of a burglary persist). Their relationship—intense, volatile, passionate, and often destructive—lasted until Dyer's suicide by overdose in a Paris hotel bathroom on October 30, 1971, just two days before the opening of Bacon's major retrospective at the Grand Palais. Dyer became Bacon's greatest muse, appearing in dozens of paintings (over 40 documented works feature him directly or indirectly), far more than any other sitter. His physical presence (muscular build, angular features, craggy profile) and emotional complexity profoundly shaped Bacon's art, amplifying themes of vulnerability, mortality, desire, brutality, and the fragility of the human body.
During Their Relationship (1963–1971)
- Muse and Subject: Dyer provided Bacon with an ideal model for exploring raw human existence. Bacon painted him obsessively in single panels, diptychs, and triptychs, often using John Deakin's photographs as source material. Key early works include Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer (1963), initiating a cycle of monumental portraits from 1966–1968 (e.g., Portrait of George Dyer Riding a Bicycle 1966, Portrait of George Dyer Staring into a Mirror 1967). These depict Dyer as virile yet tormented—brooding, heroic, vulnerable—blending tenderness with distortion. Dyer's body became a vehicle for Bacon's fascination with flesh as material: twisted sinew, exposed muscle, screaming mouths, evoking existential anguish and erotic tension.
- Emotional Catalyst: The relationship's turbulence (alcohol-fueled arguments, Dyer's growing isolation and dependence) fueled Bacon's "brutality of fact." Dyer embodied contradictions—tough yet fragile, debonair yet self-destructive—mirroring Bacon's own masochistic tendencies and interest in human suffering. Works like Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror (1968) use reflection to symbolize duality: strength intertwined with a "death wish."
- Stylistic Impact: Dyer's recurring presence intensified Bacon's head studies and full-figure distortions, shifting from earlier friends (e.g., Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne) toward more personal, obsessive serial portrayals.
1964 George Dyer
2014 SOLD for £ 26.7M by Sotheby's
Francis is the most disturbing portrait maker of his time. His exegetes shall enjoy to compare the difference of empathy of the artist with respectively his lover and his friends. Painted in 1964, a triptych portrait of Lucian Freud was sold for £ 23M by Sotheby's on February 10, 2011.
In the same year, Francis made two new triptych portraits of George Dyer. One of them, on dark background, focuses the attention on the abnormal prominence of the jaw.
In 1964, two triptychs by Bacon on a light background express further George's banality and stupidity of the model. One of them was sold for £ 26.7M from a lower estimate of £ 15M by Sotheby's on June 30, 2014, lot 15.
With his hair tuft in the fashion of that time and his big nose, the man loved by Francis is decidedly not a playboy. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
In the same year, Francis made two new triptych portraits of George Dyer. One of them, on dark background, focuses the attention on the abnormal prominence of the jaw.
In 1964, two triptychs by Bacon on a light background express further George's banality and stupidity of the model. One of them was sold for £ 26.7M from a lower estimate of £ 15M by Sotheby's on June 30, 2014, lot 15.
With his hair tuft in the fashion of that time and his big nose, the man loved by Francis is decidedly not a playboy. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2014 X post by @ArtHitParade announces the £26.7 million Sotheby's sale of Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer," a rare 1964 triptych featuring the artist's lover and muse, marking its first appearance at auction.
- George Dyer, a former burglar who met Bacon in 1963, became the subject of over 30 works; this early triptych on light ground conveys Dyer's psychological intensity amid their turbulent relationship, which ended with his 1971 suicide.
- The record price highlighted Bacon's booming market in the mid-2010s, with the small-format piece exceeding estimates and signaling strong demand for his distorted, existential portraits among global collectors.
1964 Lucian Freud
2022 SOLD for $ 30M by Sotheby's
An essential and prolific part of the art of Francis Bacon is constituted by the triptychs. Giving three different visions of the deformed subjects of his fantasies, the artist provides the key to its three-dimensional interpretation.
He made his relatives and himself parading before his strange three sided virtual mirror. Lucian Freud was a close friend since 1945. They together gathered around them the eccentric coteries of the Soho bars and clubs.
A portrait of Freud painted in 1964 by Bacon in his usual small triptych format was sold by Sotheby's for £ 23M on February 10, 2011, lot 30, and for $ 30M on November 16, 2022, lot 120. It is the first of the five small triptychs of Lucian.
This Three Studies for Portrait of Lucian Freud painted from photos by John Deakin in a dominant scarlet red impasto are suitable to interest and intrigue psychiatrists and psychoanalysts as well as art lovers.
The exercises of mutual portraits between the two artists indeed reveal their secret motivations. Francis was observing Lucian's restlessness and willful presence while in the opposite Lucian observed a distance in Francis's face expression. The obscured eyes and torqued lips mark Lucian's most usual attitude and his hair lock is also typical.
Their mutual differences led to a bitter rivalry in the 1980s.
Grok thought :
Quote
Irish History Bitesize! @lorraineelizab6 Feb 9, 2024
#Otd 2011: 'The triptych, Three Studies For A Portrait Of Lucian Freud' (1964) by #Dublin's Francis Bacon sold at Sotheby’s London for £23 million (€27.2 million)! Bacon is Ireland's most expensive artist! See my old thread of some of his other work! https://x.com/lorraineelizab6/status/1130090417700184064?s=20…
He made his relatives and himself parading before his strange three sided virtual mirror. Lucian Freud was a close friend since 1945. They together gathered around them the eccentric coteries of the Soho bars and clubs.
A portrait of Freud painted in 1964 by Bacon in his usual small triptych format was sold by Sotheby's for £ 23M on February 10, 2011, lot 30, and for $ 30M on November 16, 2022, lot 120. It is the first of the five small triptychs of Lucian.
This Three Studies for Portrait of Lucian Freud painted from photos by John Deakin in a dominant scarlet red impasto are suitable to interest and intrigue psychiatrists and psychoanalysts as well as art lovers.
The exercises of mutual portraits between the two artists indeed reveal their secret motivations. Francis was observing Lucian's restlessness and willful presence while in the opposite Lucian observed a distance in Francis's face expression. The obscured eyes and torqued lips mark Lucian's most usual attitude and his hair lock is also typical.
Their mutual differences led to a bitter rivalry in the 1980s.
Grok thought :
Quote
Irish History Bitesize! @lorraineelizab6 Feb 9, 2024
#Otd 2011: 'The triptych, Three Studies For A Portrait Of Lucian Freud' (1964) by #Dublin's Francis Bacon sold at Sotheby’s London for £23 million (€27.2 million)! Bacon is Ireland's most expensive artist! See my old thread of some of his other work! https://x.com/lorraineelizab6/status/1130090417700184064?s=20…
- This post marks the 13th anniversary of the sale of Francis Bacon's 1964 triptych "Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud" selling for £23 million at Sotheby's in 2011, featuring distorted close-ups of his friend and rival artist Lucian Freud in crimson tones, emphasizing Bacon's raw, existential style.
- Born in Dublin in 1909, Bacon is hailed as Ireland's most valuable artist, a title reinforced by a 2013 sale of another Freud triptych for $142.4 million—the highest ever for an Irish-born painter—despite his self-identification as British and relocation to London at age 16.
- The embedded 2019 thread traces Bacon's career phases, from Picasso-inspired fury in the 1930s to cooler self-portraits in the 1980s, illustrated by iconic works like his meat-hung pope reinterpretation and umbrella-wielding figures, underscoring his influence on post-war expressionis
1966 George Dyer
2017 SOLD for $ 39M by Sotheby's
In his relationship with Peter, Francis Bacon had the role of the victim of a sadist. After Peter, his choice to love George is an experience with a younger man, stronger and more handsome than him. This connection with a thug without culture disturbs the friends of Francis, which adds to his pleasure.
George enters the intimacy of Francis without being involved in his intellectual community. Addicted to alcohol and tobacco and probably naive, he does not see the danger. Francis, who spoke a lot throughout his career, says to others : "Death is desire" or "You kill the thing you love".
The triptychs with front face and profiles in life size are a suitable format for Francis. In painting the portraits of his friends, he studies to what extent his own passions are out of range from any conventional ideal. The reason why Francis's art is fascinating is that he goes so far in introspection up to overcoming the bounds of decency.
On November 16, 2017, Sotheby's sold for $ 39M a triptych on a black background painted in 1966, lot 40 estimated $ 35M. In left and middle images, the crushed nose and the semi-spherical hollows of the orbits have killed any possibility of empathy.
In the same year in large format, George tries to discuss but his disarticulated and sticky body prevents communication. This Portrait of George Dyer Talking, 198 x 147 cm, was sold for £ 42M by Christie's in 2014.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Oct 28, 2017
#HBD #FrancisBacon! 'Three Studies of George Dyer' will be offered in #SothebysContemporary Evening on 16 November, exhibition opens 3 Nov.
George enters the intimacy of Francis without being involved in his intellectual community. Addicted to alcohol and tobacco and probably naive, he does not see the danger. Francis, who spoke a lot throughout his career, says to others : "Death is desire" or "You kill the thing you love".
The triptychs with front face and profiles in life size are a suitable format for Francis. In painting the portraits of his friends, he studies to what extent his own passions are out of range from any conventional ideal. The reason why Francis's art is fascinating is that he goes so far in introspection up to overcoming the bounds of decency.
On November 16, 2017, Sotheby's sold for $ 39M a triptych on a black background painted in 1966, lot 40 estimated $ 35M. In left and middle images, the crushed nose and the semi-spherical hollows of the orbits have killed any possibility of empathy.
In the same year in large format, George tries to discuss but his disarticulated and sticky body prevents communication. This Portrait of George Dyer Talking, 198 x 147 cm, was sold for £ 42M by Christie's in 2014.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Oct 28, 2017
#HBD #FrancisBacon! 'Three Studies of George Dyer' will be offered in #SothebysContemporary Evening on 16 November, exhibition opens 3 Nov.
- Sotheby's 2017 tweet celebrates Francis Bacon's birthday by promoting his 1966 triptych "Three Studies of George Dyer," a rare oil-on-canvas work depicting his lover and muse in three distorted, expressive profiles, as shown in the accompanying framed image.
- The painting, unseen publicly for 50 years, highlights Bacon's raw style exploring human vulnerability, with George Dyer's suicide five years later influencing Bacon's later oeuvre focused on grief and memory.
- Auctioned November 16, 2017, it fetched $36.8 million—among Bacon's top sales—underscoring the market's enduring demand for his psychologically intense portraits, per Sotheby's records.
1966 Isabel Rawsthorne
2013 SOLD for £ 11.3M by Sotheby's
Isabel Rawsthorne was the artistic link between Paris and Soho, and between Giacometti and Bacon.
Arriving in Paris in 1934, the young English woman was a model for famous artists. Alberto Giacometti was mad about her. She was an artist in her own right and exhibited in London in 1949 with Francis Bacon.
She had many qualities to please Bacon. Widow and wife of famous composers, she was known to drink as much as they did. Francis dreamed of Paris. An activist and liberated woman, Isabel was welcomed in the Parisian avant-gardes where she met Bataille, Balthus, Sartre and Beauvoir, and many others.
With her, Alberto had invented the post-realistic psychological portrait. The portraitist should now totally empathize with his model, who should be recognized for his temperament more than by his physical appearance.
Francis appreciated Alberto and brought Isabel at the top of his pantheon. Far away from the disgusting erotic images of Muriel or Henrietta, he glorifies Isabel by showing her head in a triptych, a technique that he could only execute for friends very close to him: George, Lucian, and of course himself.
On June 26, 2013, Sotheby's sold for £ 11.3M the fourth Isabel triptych, painted in 1966 in his usual format as three separate oils on canvas 35 x 30 cm each.
Francis mixes as always the look of the model with the future decomposition of the flesh. At 54, Isabel is no longer the beautiful girl whom Derain and Picasso had admired. The triptych by Francis is displaying a wonderful and friendly truth.
The art of Francis should not be reduced to a nymphomaniac homosexuality. He is also the strongest portraitist of his time.
Arriving in Paris in 1934, the young English woman was a model for famous artists. Alberto Giacometti was mad about her. She was an artist in her own right and exhibited in London in 1949 with Francis Bacon.
She had many qualities to please Bacon. Widow and wife of famous composers, she was known to drink as much as they did. Francis dreamed of Paris. An activist and liberated woman, Isabel was welcomed in the Parisian avant-gardes where she met Bataille, Balthus, Sartre and Beauvoir, and many others.
With her, Alberto had invented the post-realistic psychological portrait. The portraitist should now totally empathize with his model, who should be recognized for his temperament more than by his physical appearance.
Francis appreciated Alberto and brought Isabel at the top of his pantheon. Far away from the disgusting erotic images of Muriel or Henrietta, he glorifies Isabel by showing her head in a triptych, a technique that he could only execute for friends very close to him: George, Lucian, and of course himself.
On June 26, 2013, Sotheby's sold for £ 11.3M the fourth Isabel triptych, painted in 1966 in his usual format as three separate oils on canvas 35 x 30 cm each.
Francis mixes as always the look of the model with the future decomposition of the flesh. At 54, Isabel is no longer the beautiful girl whom Derain and Picasso had admired. The triptych by Francis is displaying a wonderful and friendly truth.
The art of Francis should not be reduced to a nymphomaniac homosexuality. He is also the strongest portraitist of his time.
Self Portrait
Intro
Since his beginnings in 1944, Francis Bacon emphasizes the triptych, enabling him to express in a single work the variants of incommunicability. In the life size head portrait format, these oils on canvas, designated as Studies by the artist, have a unique individual dimension, 35 x 30 cm. An early example is the 1964 portrait of Lucian Freud sold for £ 23M by Sotheby's in 2011.
The sordid suicide of George Dyer in 1971 stops the aging of a young man, leaving Francis with his doubts and anxieties about how to manage his own life.
After George's death, Francis Bacon wanders, psychologically and physically. His London friends are also aging, and he is looking for new acquaintances in the intellectual circles of Paris. John Deakin had died in 1972 and he is no more supplied with photographs of their Soho friends. He looks in his mirror for lack of a better source of inspiration. Over the years, he sees therein a kind of portrait of Dorian Gray : the true image of himself.
Morbid, disgusted, ever looking for the meaning of life, watching death at work in his own mirror, the artist comes again to one of his preferred subjects : himself. The distortion of the face lines and the violence of the colors do not remove the likeness of these self-portraits, but with the nose of an old alcoholic.
Taking as a model some images made in a photo boost, the artist manages through such triple pictures a motion reminiscent of Muybridge and also a sort of sequence of police shots and possibly the illusion of a tridimensional effect.
The sordid suicide of George Dyer in 1971 stops the aging of a young man, leaving Francis with his doubts and anxieties about how to manage his own life.
After George's death, Francis Bacon wanders, psychologically and physically. His London friends are also aging, and he is looking for new acquaintances in the intellectual circles of Paris. John Deakin had died in 1972 and he is no more supplied with photographs of their Soho friends. He looks in his mirror for lack of a better source of inspiration. Over the years, he sees therein a kind of portrait of Dorian Gray : the true image of himself.
Morbid, disgusted, ever looking for the meaning of life, watching death at work in his own mirror, the artist comes again to one of his preferred subjects : himself. The distortion of the face lines and the violence of the colors do not remove the likeness of these self-portraits, but with the nose of an old alcoholic.
Taking as a model some images made in a photo boost, the artist manages through such triple pictures a motion reminiscent of Muybridge and also a sort of sequence of police shots and possibly the illusion of a tridimensional effect.
1
1974 with closed eyes
2011 SOLD for $ 25.3M by Christie's
Made in 1974, the face of Bacon in triptych sold for $ 25.3M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 36, has a revealing feature : he cannot look at himself because his eyes are shut.
2
1975 with vague eyes
2008 SOLD for £ 17.3M by Christie's
A Study for Self Portrait with vague eyes painted in 1975 in his standardized life size triptych format 35 x 30 each was sold for £ 17.3M by Christie's on June 30, 2008, lot 29.
3
1976 with half closed eyes
2008 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
A Study for Self Portrait with half closed eyes painted in 1976 by Francis Bacon in his standardized life size triptych format 35 x 30 cm each was sold for $ 28M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 10.
In a kinetic sequence from the right to the left panel, a medical lens floats in front of the left cheek. The right eye looks much damaged like after a brawl.
In a kinetic sequence from the right to the left panel, a medical lens floats in front of the left cheek. The right eye looks much damaged like after a brawl.
4
1979 on orange background
2022 SOLD for $ 29M by Christie's
Mortality is a thread line in the art of Francis Bacon. Early felt as a challenge, it became a personal tragedy after the untimely death of his love partners, Peter in 1962 and George in 1971. He painted no less than 29 self portraits in the 1970s. In 1979 the death of the club owner Muriel Belcher at 71 years old marks a termination of the feeling of good life in Soho.
Turning 70 in the same year, Francis feels of himself like a survivor, more than ever looking for the ravage of time on his own face.
This sad mood is reflected in a triptych again titled Three Studies for a Self Portrait painted in 1979, sold for $ 29M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 52.
These three faces bears marks of aging through patches of pink and blue over the pale flesh. The blazing orange background is a reminder of his first masterpiece in triptych, the 1944 Three studies of figures at the base of a crucifixion.
Compare the single 1979 Study for Self Portrait sold for $ 9M by Christie's on November 13, 2019, lot 17 B, and the 1979 triptych Three Studies for a Self Portrait sold for $ 29M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 52.
The Study for Self-Portrait of 1979 (single canvas, oil on canvas, 35.3 x 31 cm / approx. 14 x 12 in.), sold at Christie's New York on November 13, 2019, as lot 17B for $9,014,500, is a compact, intimate head study from Bacon's late period of obsessive self-examination. Painted in the standardized small-head format he favored for such works, it presents a frontal or near-frontal view of the artist's face with characteristic distortions: ravaged flesh tones slashed by crimson and red creases, deep aging lines, pale patches over the skin, and an averted or half-closed gaze that conveys desolation, introspection, and weary resignation. The background is typically dark or neutral in these single studies, allowing the violent handling of the face to dominate. This work feels contained and meditative—a distilled, solitary confrontation with mortality, where Bacon records the cumulative toll of time and loss (Dyer's death in 1971, Deakin's in 1972, and ongoing personal decay) without the drama of multiplicity.
In contrast, the Three Studies for Self-Portrait of 1979 (triptych, oil on canvas, each panel 35.6 x 30.5 cm / 14 x 12 in.), sold at Christie's New York on November 9, 2022, as lot 52 in the Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection sale for $29,015,000, expands the same intimate scale into a sequential, cinematic format. This is one of Bacon's most celebrated small-scale self-portrait triptychs from that year: the three panels stage a gradual rotation or evolution of the head emerging from darkness, with the face turning slightly across the sequence as if in slow motion or a Muybridge-inspired study. The distortions are rhythmic and controlled—smeared features, vivid crimson accents on flesh, aging marks, and elusive gazes—but set against a searing, blazing cadmium orange background (a rare choice for Bacon in small-format works; he typically reserved such intense, fiery grounds for larger canvases). This orange backdrop adds explosive energy and psychological intensity, making the figure appear to materialize from void into vivid, writhing presence. The triptych format creates temporal illusion: progression of decay, repetition of scrutiny, or inescapable cycles of self-confrontation, evoking photo-booth seriality, police shots, or illusory 3D depth through angled views.
Key comparisons:
Turning 70 in the same year, Francis feels of himself like a survivor, more than ever looking for the ravage of time on his own face.
This sad mood is reflected in a triptych again titled Three Studies for a Self Portrait painted in 1979, sold for $ 29M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 52.
These three faces bears marks of aging through patches of pink and blue over the pale flesh. The blazing orange background is a reminder of his first masterpiece in triptych, the 1944 Three studies of figures at the base of a crucifixion.
Compare the single 1979 Study for Self Portrait sold for $ 9M by Christie's on November 13, 2019, lot 17 B, and the 1979 triptych Three Studies for a Self Portrait sold for $ 29M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 52.
The Study for Self-Portrait of 1979 (single canvas, oil on canvas, 35.3 x 31 cm / approx. 14 x 12 in.), sold at Christie's New York on November 13, 2019, as lot 17B for $9,014,500, is a compact, intimate head study from Bacon's late period of obsessive self-examination. Painted in the standardized small-head format he favored for such works, it presents a frontal or near-frontal view of the artist's face with characteristic distortions: ravaged flesh tones slashed by crimson and red creases, deep aging lines, pale patches over the skin, and an averted or half-closed gaze that conveys desolation, introspection, and weary resignation. The background is typically dark or neutral in these single studies, allowing the violent handling of the face to dominate. This work feels contained and meditative—a distilled, solitary confrontation with mortality, where Bacon records the cumulative toll of time and loss (Dyer's death in 1971, Deakin's in 1972, and ongoing personal decay) without the drama of multiplicity.
In contrast, the Three Studies for Self-Portrait of 1979 (triptych, oil on canvas, each panel 35.6 x 30.5 cm / 14 x 12 in.), sold at Christie's New York on November 9, 2022, as lot 52 in the Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection sale for $29,015,000, expands the same intimate scale into a sequential, cinematic format. This is one of Bacon's most celebrated small-scale self-portrait triptychs from that year: the three panels stage a gradual rotation or evolution of the head emerging from darkness, with the face turning slightly across the sequence as if in slow motion or a Muybridge-inspired study. The distortions are rhythmic and controlled—smeared features, vivid crimson accents on flesh, aging marks, and elusive gazes—but set against a searing, blazing cadmium orange background (a rare choice for Bacon in small-format works; he typically reserved such intense, fiery grounds for larger canvases). This orange backdrop adds explosive energy and psychological intensity, making the figure appear to materialize from void into vivid, writhing presence. The triptych format creates temporal illusion: progression of decay, repetition of scrutiny, or inescapable cycles of self-confrontation, evoking photo-booth seriality, police shots, or illusory 3D depth through angled views.
Key comparisons:
- Format and structure: The 2019 single panel is solitary and immediate—one frozen, introspective moment of self-dissection in the mirror. The 2022 triptych multiplies this into three linked panels, transforming personal grief into a structured narrative of time's passage, motion, and fragmentation. The triptych's serial nature amplifies Bacon's themes of existential repetition and mortality, while the single study offers raw, unsequenced intimacy.
- Emotional tone and visual impact: Both share Bacon's unflinching likeness amid violent distortion—ravaged features, bold color slashes (crimson/red on pale flesh), and a sense of desolation projecting ruin. However, the single 1979 feels more resigned and contained, a quiet rumination on aging and isolation. The triptych is more dynamic and visceral: the blazing orange ground ignites the composition with urgency, the sequential panels suggest inescapable progression (head turning, dissolving, re-emerging), and the overall effect is cinematic and haunting—Bacon's face "materializing" from darkness to engage the viewer directly.
- Technique and innovation: Both draw on photo-booth sources for serial distortion and mirror-based self-study. The single panel emphasizes contained brutality; the triptych innovates by breaking Bacon's usual rule (cadmium orange reserved for large works), creating a "near-cinematic sequence" with shimmering texture and skeins of color that writhe against the fiery backdrop.
- Market context: The single study's $9m result in 2019 reflects strong demand for Bacon's rare, intimate small heads from the late 1970s. The triptych's $29m in 2022 (from the high-profile Paul G. Allen collection) highlights the premium on sequenced formats: triptychs often command significantly higher prices due to their dramatic structure, rarity, and visual/thematic complexity—nearly triple the single panel's realization, underscoring how multiplicity elevates perceived value and impact in Bacon's oeuvre.
