ArtHitParade
ArtHitParade on Twitter
  • Home
    • Contact
  • Next Auctions
    • Calendar
  • Top 10
    • Origin
    • From 600 BCE to CE
    • Years 1 to 1000
    • Years 1000 to 1300
    • 14th Century
    • 15th Century >
      • Years 1400-1429
      • Years 1430-1459
      • Years 1460-1479
      • Years 1480-1499
    • 16th Century >
      • Years 1500-1519
      • Decade 1520-1529
      • Decade 1530-1539
      • Years 1540-1569
      • Years 1570-1599
    • 17th Century >
      • Decade 1600-1609
      • Decade 1610-1619
      • Decade 1620-1629
      • Decade 1630-1639
      • Decade 1640-1649
      • Decade 1650-1659
      • Years 1660-1679
      • Years 1680-1699
    • 18th Century >
      • Years 1700-1719
      • Decade 1720-1729
      • Decade 1730-1739
      • Decade 1740-1749
      • Decade 1750-1759
      • Decade 1760-1769
      • Decade 1770-1779 >
        • 1776
      • Decade 1780-1789
      • Decade 1790-1799
    • 19th Century >
      • Decade 1800-1809
      • Decade 1810-1819
      • Decade 1820-1829
      • Decade 1830-1839
      • Decade 1840-1849
      • Decade 1850-1859
      • Decade 1860-1869
      • Decade 1870-1879
      • Decade 1880-1889 >
        • 1887
        • 1888
        • 1889
      • Decade 1890-1899 >
        • 1890
        • 1892
    • 20th Century >
      • Decade 1900-1909 >
        • 1904
        • 1905
        • 1907
        • 1908
        • 1909
      • Decade 1910-1919 >
        • 1911
        • 1912
        • 1913
        • 1914
        • 1915
        • 1916
        • 1917
        • 1918
        • 1919
      • Decade 1920-1929 >
        • 1920
        • 1923
        • 1925
        • 1926
        • 1927
        • 1928
        • 1929
      • Decade 1930-1939 >
        • 1930
        • 1931
        • 1932
        • 1933
        • 1934
        • 1935
        • 1936
        • 1937
        • 1938
        • 1939
      • Decade 1940-1949 >
        • 1941
        • 1942
        • 1945
        • 1947
        • 1948
        • 1949
      • Decade 1950-1959 >
        • 1950
        • 1951
        • 1952
        • 1953
        • 1954
        • 1955
        • 1956
        • 1957
        • 1958
        • 1959
      • Decade 1960-1969 >
        • 1960
        • 1961
        • 1962
        • 1963
        • 1964
        • 1965
        • 1966
        • 1967
        • 1968
        • 1969
      • Decade 1970-1979 >
        • 1970
        • 1971
        • 1972
        • 1975
        • 1977
        • 1979
      • Decade 1980-1989 >
        • 1980
        • 1981
        • 1982
        • 1983
        • 1985
        • 1986
        • 1987
        • 1988
      • Decade 1990-1999 >
        • 1993
        • 1994
        • 1996
        • 1997
        • 1998
    • Decade 2000-2009 >
      • 2000
      • 2001
      • 2006
      • 2007
    • From 2010 to Now >
      • Current Art
  • Roman Empire
  • Renaissance
  • Painting
    • Ancient Painting >
      • Oil on Copper
    • 18th Century Painting
  • Ancient Drawing
  • Art on Paper
  • Sculpture
    • Bust
    • Ancient Sculpture
    • Italian Sculpture
    • French Sculpture
  • Women Artists
    • Ancient Art by Women
    • Art by Women ca 1960
    • Current Art by Women
  • Furniture
    • Chairs and Seats
    • Colonial Furniture
    • Ancient French Furniture
    • 18th Century Furniture
    • 20th Century Furniture >
      • Art Deco
  • Prints
    • Ancient Prints
    • Modern Prints
  • Photo
    • Old Photos >
      • Travel Photos
      • Early French Photo
    • Photos 1900-1940 >
      • Photos in the 1920s
    • Photos 1970s 1980s
    • Gursky
    • Photos by Women
  • The Man
  • The Woman
  • Children
  • Man and Woman
  • Groups
  • Self Portrait
    • Self Portrait 2nd page
  • Nude
  • Abstract Art
    • Abstract Art - 2nd page
  • Landscape
    • Midi
    • Alps
    • Mountains in China
  • Cities
    • Venice
    • Paris
    • Los Angeles
  • Flowers
    • Bouquet
  • Animals
    • Bird
    • Cats
    • Horse
  • Dragon
  • Tabletop
  • Early Still Life
  • Music and Dance in Art
    • Music in Old Painting
  • Sport in Art
  • Orientalism
    • Orientalism 1830-1900
  • France
    • Louis XIV to XVI
    • Revolution and Empire
    • Louis XVIII to 2nd Empire
    • Ancient French Painting
    • Cézanne
    • Monet >
      • Monet before 1878
      • From Vétheuil to Giverny
      • Pond by Monet
    • Gauguin
    • Lautrec
    • Matisse
    • Post War French Art >
      • Klein
  • Italy
    • Italian Painting 1280-1700
    • Canaletto
    • Modigliani
    • Modern Italian Art
    • Italy 2nd page
  • Switzerland before 1940
  • Giacometti
    • Giacometti 1947-53
  • Bacon
    • Bacon before 1963
    • Bacon 1963-70
    • Later Bacons
  • UK - 2nd page
    • Ancient England
    • George I to III
    • George IV to Victoria
    • British Royals
    • Turner
    • Freud
    • Hockney
    • Doig
  • Germany
    • Ancient Germany
    • Richter >
      • Richter before 1986
    • Germany - 2nd page
  • Rembrandt
  • Van Gogh
  • De Kooning
  • Holland 2nd page
  • Old Flanders and Belgium
    • Flemish Art >
      • Rubens
    • Magritte
    • Tintin
    • Belgium 2nd page
  • Picasso
    • Picasso before 1907
    • Picasso 1907-1931
    • Picasso in the 1930s
    • Picasso 1940-1960
    • Picasso from 1961
    • Prints by Picasso
  • Spain - 2nd page
    • Ancient Spain
    • Miro
    • Spain 3rd page
  • Klimt
  • Austria 2nd page
  • USA
    • US Independence
    • Development of USA
    • US Civil War
    • Far West
    • US Painting before 1940
    • Rockwell
    • Rothko >
      • Early Rothko
      • Rothko 1957-70
    • Pollock
    • Lichtenstein >
      • Lichtenstein after 1965
    • Warhol >
      • USA by Warhol
      • Celebrities by Warhol
      • Later Warhols
    • Twombly
    • Koons
    • Basquiat
    • USA 2nd page
  • Canada
  • Central and South Americas
  • China
    • Archaic China >
      • Ritual Bronzes
    • Northern Song
    • Southern Song and Yuan
    • Early Ming
    • Later Ming
    • Early Qing
    • Qianlong
    • Modern China >
      • Sanyu
      • Zao Wou-Ki
    • New Chinese Painting
    • Chinese Porcelain >
      • Song to Yuan Porcelain
      • Ming Porcelain
      • Qing Porcelain
    • Chinese Art
    • Chinese Calligraphy
    • Jade
  • India
    • Tibet and Nepal
    • Modern India >
      • Gaitonde
  • Persia
  • Japan
  • Russia
    • Russia 1700-1900
    • Kandinsky
  • Eastern Europe
    • Chagall
  • Northern Europe
    • Munch
  • Egypt
  • Tropical Africa
    • Congo
    • Gabon
    • Mask
  • Tribal Oceania
  • Australia
    • Colonial Australia
  • Islam
  • Buddhism
    • Early Buddhist Sculpture
  • Judaica
  • Christianity
    • Madonna and Child
  • Cars
    • Birth of Automobile
    • Cars of the 1910s
    • Cars of the 1920s
    • Cars of the 1930s >
      • Cars 1930-33
      • Cars 1934-36
      • Cars 1937-39
    • Post War Cars >
      • Cars 1940-50
      • Cars 1951-53
      • Cars 1954-55
      • Cars 1956-57
      • Cars 1958-59
    • Cars of the 1960s >
      • Cars 1960-61
      • Cars 1962-64
      • Cars 1965-67
    • Cars 1970s 1980s
    • Supercars
    • Hypercars
    • Ferrari >
      • Early Ferrari
      • From LWB to GTO >
        • California Spider
      • Ferrari after 1962
    • Italian Cars
    • Mercedes-Benz
    • Porsche
    • British Cars >
      • Aston Martin
      • Jaguar
      • McLaren
    • Bugatti
    • French Cars
    • Duesenberg
    • Ford and Shelby
    • Cars - 2nd page
  • Motorcycles
  • Jewels
    • White Diamond
    • Pink Diamond
    • Blue Diamond
    • African Diamonds
    • Jewels - 2nd page
    • Cartier
  • Silverware
  • Coin
    • Gold Coins
    • Silver Coins
    • Antique Coins
    • Coins 1000-1775
    • Coins 1776-92
    • Coins 1793-99
    • Coins 1800-49
    • Coins 1850-69
    • Coins 1870-99
    • 20th century Coins
    • British Coins
    • Dollars and Eagles
    • Asian Coins
  • Paper Currency
  • Medal and Decoration
    • Nobel Medals
  • Time Pieces
    • Clocks >
      • Old Clocks
    • Mechanical Craft ca 1800 >
      • Jaquet-Droz and Followers
    • Modern Watches
    • New Watches
    • Patek Philippe >
      • Development of Patek Philippe
      • Patek Philippe 1945-1980
    • Rolex
    • Watches 2nd page
    • English Time Pieces
    • French Time Pieces
  • Glass and Crystal
    • Glass before 1900
    • Glass 1900-10
  • European Porcelain
    • Ceramic before 1760
  • Textiles
  • Garment
  • Fashion
  • Books
    • Incunabula
    • Books 1501-1700
    • Fine Books 1700-1850
  • Literature
    • Literature in English
    • Literature in French
  • Poems and Lyrics
  • Autograph
  • Manuscript
  • Religious Texts
  • Political Writing
  • Comic Books
  • Comic Art
  • Travel
  • Space
  • Maps
  • Cars in Movies
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Musical Instrument
    • Violin
    • Guitar
    • Musical Instrument 2nd page
  • Music Hall
    • The Beatles
  • Poster
  • Sport Memorabilia
    • Sport Equipment >
      • Baseball Bat
    • Sport Document
    • Sport Rewards and Medals
    • Sport Images before 1945
    • Sports Card after 1945
    • Baseball >
      • Babe Ruth
      • Mickey Mantle
      • Baseball Uniform
    • Basketball
    • Ice Hockey
    • Sport Memorabilia 2nd page
    • Olympic Games
  • Origins of Sports
  • Historical Arms
    • Blade and Armour
    • Colt 1836-62
    • Later Colts
    • Winchester
    • Firearms - 2nd page
  • Toys and Carousels
    • Doll
  • Games
  • Stamps
    • World Stamps
    • US Stamps
  • Inventions
  • Instrument and Equipment
  • Sciences
    • Ancient Science
    • Sciences 1600-1800
    • Sciences from 1800
    • Astronomy
    • Medicine
    • Natural History
  • Whisky
  • Wine
  • Past Sales

Later Bacons

See also : Bacon  The Man  Nude  Animals  Bird
Chronology : 1970-1979  1972  1975  1977  1980-1989  1980  1981
Bacon 1963-69

1972 George in Movement
​2018 SOLD for £ 20M including premium

George Dyer committed his irreparable act in October 1971. Although Francis Bacon's grief is deep and sincere, it is not devoid of selfishness. Francis is remorseful for his own behavioral mistakes towards the young man. Above all, this tragic event raises back to the surface with an unprecedented power his queries about the meaning of life.

The body and soul of the deceased are lost forever but the memory remains, threatened by oblivion. A triptych preserved at the Tate Gallery shows the man amputated of various organs before his collapse on the central panel.

On October 4 in London, Christie's sells Figure in Movement, oil on canvas 198 x 148 cm painted in 1972, lot 7 estimated £ 15M.

George is seen from behind, nude, without amputation, standing contorted on the tip of a foot. The title is ambiguous : by nature a dead does not move. A cheek is pressed against a newspaper illustrated by Letraset that he does not look at, as if he was desperately trying to stay in a present that no longer concerns him.

The overall composition seems simple but it is actually populated with symbols, easier to describe than to interpret.

The empty room can be the studio of a photographer : the character is enclosed in a filiform cage, as for the staging of an ephemeral moment or for the preview of a framing. This idea had already been used by the artist, for example in the three images of the triptych portrait of Lucian Freud in 1969.

The present is actually impossible to capture. On the floor next to the cage, a page of the same newspaper is shredded.

The body is illuminated from above, casting a black shadow on the ground. In other artworks like the Study for Portrait painted in 1977, the shadow takes on the recognizable silhouette of Francis Bacon himself. The artist is thus associated in a dematerialized form with the deceased.

The painting is executed in a very thick impasto, almost a sculpture. By kneading his pigments, Bacon offers his only method to create something that is akin to life : his art.
1972

1974 The Hidden Face of Francis Bacon
2011 SOLD 25.3 M$ including premium

His lover George Dyer committed suicide in 1971. Puzzled, disgusted, always looking for the meaning of life, Francis Bacon comes again to one of his familiar subjects: himself.

Since his beginnings in 1944, the artist emphasizes the triptych, enabling him to express in a single work the variants of incommunicability.

Made in 1974, the face of Bacon in triptych for sale by Christie's in New York on May 11 has a revealing feature: he cannot look at himself because his eyes are closed.

These oils on canvas, labeled as studies by the artist, have the same individual dimension, 35 x 30 cm, as the portrait of Lucian Freud sold £ 23M including premium by Sotheby's on February 10 this year, and of two other self-portraits sold at Christie's: a triptych of 1975 with vague eyes at £ 17M including premium on June 30, 2008, and another one from 1976 with half-closed eyes at $ 28M including premium on May 13, 2008.

The work for sale is illustrated in the Reuters news shared by Artdaily. Christie's has not published an estimate, but it is expected around $ 20 to $ 25 million.

POST SALE COMMENT

The prices of self-portrait triptychs of Bacon are fairly regular. This one was sold for $ 25.3 million including premium.

1975 Three Studies for Self Portrait by Bacon
2008 SOLD for £ 17.3M including premium by Christie's

Link to catalogue.
1975

1975 Self Portrait in the Rain
​2019 SOLD for £ 16.5M including premium

The art of Francis Bacon first 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. 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.

For five or six years, 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.

A self-portrait painted in 1975 was sold for £ 15.3M including premium by Sotheby's in London on July 1, 2015. It is listed in the same auction room on June 26, lot 9 estimated £ 15M. This oil on canvas is in 35 x 30 cm format, very often used by the artist because head studies can be in life size.

As it is often the case with Bacon, the colors are subtle, mixing green, purple and pink on a very dark heavily applied blue-purple background. Only the skin is a little shiny, to be correlated with the fact that the man is wearing a raincoat.

In this particularly gloomy atmosphere, the eye is too big, especially since it draws attention to the blank or meditative gaze. The mackintosh is tainted with unreadable residues of Letraset, considered by zealous commentators as a reference to Parisian writers, but perhaps nothing more than an original way of simulating rain.

1976 Large Triptych by Bacon
2008 SOLD for $ 86M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020

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 including premium 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 manages to be the most achieved. Three Studies of Lucian Freud, painted in 1969, was sold for $ 142M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013. Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards, painted in 1984, was sold for $ 81M including premium by Christie's on 13 May 2014. The sale of Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, painted in 1981, was sold for $ 85M including premium by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020.

The Man
Animals
Bird
Bacon
Decade 1970-1979

1976 The Ghost of George Dyer
2012 SOLD 45 M$ including premium

Francis Bacon was traumatized by the suicide of George Dyer, in 1971. For seven years, his relationship with this brute looking man were equivocal, 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 work is estimated $ 30M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 9.

I invite you to play the video shared by the auction house.

POST SALE COMMENT

Today's collectors love the works charged with an intense emotion. The success was thus assured in advance for this posthumous figure sold $ 45M including premium.

1977 The Cult of Everlasting Youth
​2018 SOLD for $ 50M including premium

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 in New York, Christie's sells 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.
1977

​​1977 The Two Faces of Disgust
2015 SOLD for £ 14.7M including premium

The suicide of George Dyer in 1971 is the great trauma of Francis Bacon. Francis, who had fun watching the downfall of his friend, loses the model that was used to his psychological fixation. The artist finds himself facing an implacable witness of his age: his own mirror.

His growing fame has no direct effect on his art. Francis condemns himself to continue painting, but he has no subject outside of the post mortem vision of George and the disgust of his own look.

On February 10 in London, Sotheby's sells a double self-portrait painted in 1977 by Francis Bacon, lot 18 estimated £ 13M. Each element has the same size as the images of his triptychs, 35 x 30 cm, chosen to provide a life-size face.

In this artwork, Francis reaches a peak of pessimism. The deformation of the lines and the violence of the colors do not remove the likeness of these self-portraits, but the nose is from an old alcoholic. The eyes are closed, but the mouths express sadness and disgust, in the same way as the mouth of his old popes had expressed helplessness and horror.

Soon after, his self-portraits became more serene when Francis finally realized that his own aging was inevitable.

I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.

1980 The Swansong of Francis Bacon
2013 SOLD 13.7 M£ including premium

Throughout his career, Bacon questioned the meaning of human life and, of course, of his own life. Hypersensitive and relevant, he makes no concessions to aesthetics. His world is ugly.

He is increasingly haunted by death. Let's be honest: in the evolution offered by Bacon of his own image, we are not interested by himself but rather in the projection of his vision on our own issues. Bacon is a psychologist but not a metaphysician, and all of that fascinates us without leading to anything. He is the most disturbing of modern artists.

In his portrait format standardized by him in triptychs of elements 35 x 30 cm in oil on canvas, Francis Bacon executed ​​eleven triptychs of his own face, starting this drama shortly before the death of George Dyer.

The penultimate tryptic made in this format is estimated £ 10M, for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 12.

This work was carried out in 1980, when Bacon was 71 years old. His round face is recognizable throughout his work, but this time his triple mirror returns an almost realistic picture without excessive sinister deformation and without the colored spots of the necrosis of flesh. The gaze is chilling : facing an invisible mirror, the character sees only himself. Communication and commiseration are impossible.

By such a realism, Bacon wants to believe that he is not ageing, so his actual age is undefined. The white collar is a sign that he continues his professional activity. Five years later, he will provide in another format the final counterparty to his illusory swansong : he will display himself in the attitude of an old man.

I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.

POST SALE COMMENT

The informations published before the sale were convincing about the importance of this artwork from the end of the career of Francis Bacon: £ 13.7 million including premium.

1980

1981 Everlasting Modernity of Aeschylus
2020 SOLD for $ 85M including premium

Francis Bacon has long sought his way to illustrate human weaknesses and suffering. The major influence on his art is the Oresteia by Aeschylus. When he discovers this trilogy, he stops destroying his own productions. It is certainly no coincidence that his seminal work, made in 1944 at the age of 35, is a triptych.

This painting is titled Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. As a challenge against Christianity, he does not display the Passion but pictures of the Furies who forever pursue their vengeance on the guilty Orestes.

In 1962 Bacon begins using a new format for his completed works : the triptych of oils on canvas sized 198 x 148 cm for each element. He will make 28 of them. Aeschylus continues to haunt him. A triptych painted in 1976 featuring in the central panel Prometheus devoured by the eagle in the presence of the Furies was sold for $ 86M including premium by Sotheby's on May 14, 2008.

On June 29 in New York, Sotheby's sells Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, painted in 1981, lot 105 estimated $ 60M. Please watch the First Look video and the Expert Voices video shared by the auction house.

Unlike the Prometheus in the example above, the artist avoids any narrative aspect in his Oresteia to better focus on the sensations. The main figure of each of the three elements is made up of contorted nudity fragments. Homosexual, sado-masochist and atheist, Francis Bacon proclaims his difference by taking Aeschylus as a reference for interpreting the human passions and the impossibility of escaping the Furies of destiny.

Nude
Decade 1980-1989
1981

1984 Bacon reached by Serenity
2014 SOLD 81 M$ including premium

In 1974, after a missed visit to his London pub, John Edwards invectives Bacon. Francis enjoyed the strong personalities and was no more used of being opposed. They become friends, to the point that John is accepted in the studio while Francis is painting.

The years that followed their first meeting are still psychologically difficult for Francis, haunted by the ghost of George Dyer and by the aging of his own body. When he paints the portrait of John in 1984, the 75 years old artist is now sensitive to serenity.

His technique is a continuous reuse of formats and compositions. The large size triptych of John, 198 x 148 cm for each element, is comparable in almost all its features to the triptych of Lucian Freud, made in 1969, which was sold for $ 142M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2013.

John sits enclosed in a threadlike cage of which we now know that it is a tribute by Bacon to Giacometti. The large empty room with the concave wall is the arena in which the artist exhibits his model. The face, which is always the subject of the greatest attention of Francis, is made expressive by his usual range of colors, from flesh to crimson.

John was not a beauty, with his strong jaw. The originality of this artwork is that the face is realistic, peaceful and confident. Francis stated that John's triptych is one of his most successful works. It certainly means that his empathy with the model was complete. John will be the sole heir of Francis and keeper of his estate.

Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards is for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13. The estimate beyond $ 75M was announced by the auction house during an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's to introduce this lot.

POST SALE COMMENT

Great result for the triptych, sold for $ 81M including premium.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.