Self Portrait
not including Grande tête by Giacometti.
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Self portrait II Women artists Man and woman Music and dance Van Gogh Picasso < 1907 Central and South Americas Mexico Bacon 1963-70 Basquiat Paris
Chronology : 1880-1889 1889 1901 1905 1940-1949 1940 1949 1969 1970 1982
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Self portrait II Women artists Man and woman Music and dance Van Gogh Picasso < 1907 Central and South Americas Mexico Bacon 1963-70 Basquiat Paris
Chronology : 1880-1889 1889 1901 1905 1940-1949 1940 1949 1969 1970 1982
1889 Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe by van Gogh
1998 SOLD for $ 71.5M by Christie's
Van Gogh is interned in Saint-Rémy since May 8, 1889. Two months later a lull in his health condition allows an escorted visit to Arles. Unhappy with missed appointments, he has a dementia attack on July 16.
The crisis is severe. Vincent does not go out any more and cannot resume his brushes before the end of August. Through the window, he sees a free man, the only free man who passes in his angle of vision, a peasant with his horse and his plow. Laboureur dans un champ, oil on canvas 50 x 65 cm, was sold for $ 81M by Christie's on November 13, 2017.
Once again he feels a frantic urge to paint, as an antidote to his illness. Concerned also by the visible signs of madness on his face, he makes three self-portraits in bust, from the left side to hide the right ear.
On two of them, he is bearded. The background is decorated with swirls in his new signature style. On the portrait which is preserved in the Museum of Oslo, perhaps the earliest in this small series, the biased gaze is incontestably psychotic. About the painting that is currently in the Musée d'Orsay, he writes to Theo with a remarkable lucidity that his face is calm but that some distress remains in his gaze.
The other self-portrait is different. He painted it to make a birthday present to his mother, who turns 70 on September 10, 1889. To appear still young and healthy, the face is without beard, which does not mean that it corresponded to reality : a beardless man was not in the fashion of the time. He also wanted to make his caregivers and Theo believe that he felt cured.
This Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe, oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm, was sold for $ 71.5M by Christie's on November 19, 1998 from a lower estimate of $ 20M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Grok thought :
Quote
Ayse Nur @aysnurkadem Feb 12, 2019
8. Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe / Van Gogh'un sakalsız kendisini resmettiği tek tablosu - 71,500,000 dolar
The crisis is severe. Vincent does not go out any more and cannot resume his brushes before the end of August. Through the window, he sees a free man, the only free man who passes in his angle of vision, a peasant with his horse and his plow. Laboureur dans un champ, oil on canvas 50 x 65 cm, was sold for $ 81M by Christie's on November 13, 2017.
Once again he feels a frantic urge to paint, as an antidote to his illness. Concerned also by the visible signs of madness on his face, he makes three self-portraits in bust, from the left side to hide the right ear.
On two of them, he is bearded. The background is decorated with swirls in his new signature style. On the portrait which is preserved in the Museum of Oslo, perhaps the earliest in this small series, the biased gaze is incontestably psychotic. About the painting that is currently in the Musée d'Orsay, he writes to Theo with a remarkable lucidity that his face is calm but that some distress remains in his gaze.
The other self-portrait is different. He painted it to make a birthday present to his mother, who turns 70 on September 10, 1889. To appear still young and healthy, the face is without beard, which does not mean that it corresponded to reality : a beardless man was not in the fashion of the time. He also wanted to make his caregivers and Theo believe that he felt cured.
This Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe, oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm, was sold for $ 71.5M by Christie's on November 19, 1998 from a lower estimate of $ 20M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Grok thought :
Quote
Ayse Nur @aysnurkadem Feb 12, 2019
8. Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe / Van Gogh'un sakalsız kendisini resmettiği tek tablosu - 71,500,000 dolar
- This post continues a 2019 thread by art historian Ayse Nur listing the world's priciest paintings, ranking Van Gogh's 1889 "Self-Portrait Without Beard" eighth at $71.5 million, notable as his sole clean-shaven self-portrait painted during asylum recovery.
- The oil-on-canvas work, a gift to brother Theo, fetched a record $71.5 million at Christie's New York in 1998—then the highest for a Van Gogh—surpassing prior benchmarks amid a booming art market.
- Today, its estimated value exceeds $165 million per market analyses, underscoring Van Gogh's enduring appeal despite his lifetime obscurity, with swirling brushstrokes capturing raw emotional intensity.
PICASSO
1
1901 Yo Picasso
1989 SOLD for $ 48M by Sotheby's
Pablo Ruiz Picasso is attracted to the bohemian life. He goes to the 4 Gats cabaret in Barcelona and shares a workshop with Carlos Casagemas from January to September 1900. That name of 4 Gats is a reference to the Chat Noir in Montmartre. The two friends explore Paris in October 1900. It is indeed the ideal city for a career as a painter.
Carlos is the first to return to Paris, in January 1901. He commits suicide on February 17.
A highly creative period begins for Pablo. In May, the success of an exhibition of his pastels in Barcelona stirs his ambition. He returns to Paris at the end of May.
The skills of the young man is already evident. He will have a solo exhibition at the Galerie Vollard from June 24. He wants to show his know-how in its whole extent and frantically prepares paintings on various themes: scenes of cabaret and of horse racing, landscapes, flowers, naked women.
He is ready. His father's name, Ruiz, is too common for his exuberant ambition. He removes it from his signature to become Picasso.
The exhibition at Vollard's is dominated by a half-length self-portrait in front of his easel, unequivocally marking the artist's desire to be known and recognized. The attitude is proud, the gaze is intense and the colors are vivid. He will later write a title on this painting, Yo Picasso, confirming his own insolence. He may be forgiven : he was not yet 20 years old.
No, decidedly, four months after the death of Casagemas, there was no precursor of the blue period. Picasso's deep depression began around the middle of 1901. Picasso would later attribute it to the mourning of his friend, which nevertheless considerably disturbed him, without ever revealing the real cause of its outbreak. A rejected love?
Yo Picasso, oil on canvas 74 x 60 cm, was sold for $ 48M by Sotheby's on May 9, 1989.
Grok thought :
Quote
Piero BENEDETTO @pieroBENEDETTO Jan 19, 2016
Self portrait Yo Picasso 1901 by Pablo Picasso #periodoBlu in #Sotheby $. 40,7 million #uomoinArte #artlovers
Carlos is the first to return to Paris, in January 1901. He commits suicide on February 17.
A highly creative period begins for Pablo. In May, the success of an exhibition of his pastels in Barcelona stirs his ambition. He returns to Paris at the end of May.
The skills of the young man is already evident. He will have a solo exhibition at the Galerie Vollard from June 24. He wants to show his know-how in its whole extent and frantically prepares paintings on various themes: scenes of cabaret and of horse racing, landscapes, flowers, naked women.
He is ready. His father's name, Ruiz, is too common for his exuberant ambition. He removes it from his signature to become Picasso.
The exhibition at Vollard's is dominated by a half-length self-portrait in front of his easel, unequivocally marking the artist's desire to be known and recognized. The attitude is proud, the gaze is intense and the colors are vivid. He will later write a title on this painting, Yo Picasso, confirming his own insolence. He may be forgiven : he was not yet 20 years old.
No, decidedly, four months after the death of Casagemas, there was no precursor of the blue period. Picasso's deep depression began around the middle of 1901. Picasso would later attribute it to the mourning of his friend, which nevertheless considerably disturbed him, without ever revealing the real cause of its outbreak. A rejected love?
Yo Picasso, oil on canvas 74 x 60 cm, was sold for $ 48M by Sotheby's on May 9, 1989.
Grok thought :
Quote
Piero BENEDETTO @pieroBENEDETTO Jan 19, 2016
Self portrait Yo Picasso 1901 by Pablo Picasso #periodoBlu in #Sotheby $. 40,7 million #uomoinArte #artlovers
- Picasso's "Yo, Picasso" self-portrait from 1901, painted during his Blue Period amid poverty and grief over a friend's suicide, depicts the 19-year-old artist in melancholic blues and greens, conveying raw vulnerability.
- The post inaccurately cites a $40.7 million Sotheby's sale price; the actual 1989 auction fetched a then-record $47.85 million, underscoring the painting's status as one of Picasso's earliest masterpieces.
- Shared by Italian entrepreneur @pieroBENEDETTO, an art enthusiast, the post engaged a multilingual community of admirers, highlighting the artwork's enduring appeal through tags like #periodoBlu and #artlovers.
2
1905 Au Lapin Agile
1989 SOLD for $ 41M by Sotheby's
Cabarets had a preponderant place in Picasso's youth. It is indeed at the 4 Gats in Barcelona that he feels the desire to have a bohemian life in Montmartre.
Le Lapin Agile is perfectly located in the heart of Montmartre, rue des Saules. Before 1900 its reputation had been sordid. Its name is a pun on the sign created by the cartoonist André Gill showing a happy rabbit jumping out of a pan.
Picasso arrives in Paris at the time when a new steward nicknamed Frédé organizes evenings in this cabaret during which poets, comedians and artists from Montmartre play music, sing, recite poems, chat with conviviality. Frédé plays guitar and cello.
Au Lapin Agile is an oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm painted by Picasso in 1905 on a commission from Frédé. Pablo prepares it in the graphic style of Toulouse-Lautrec's posters, without any style link either with the blue period or with the pink period. It was sold for $ 41M by Sotheby's on November 27, 1989.
The couple in the foreground, seated in front of glasses of wine, is made up of Picasso dressed as a Harlequin and of Germaine, the woman who had rejected Casagemas but was probably Pablo's mistress throughout the blue period. Behind them, Frédé plays the guitar.
Picasso's painting hung on the wall of the cabaret until 1912. It was therefore a silent witness of the most famous hoax in the history of art.
In 1910 on the cabaret terrace, the writer Roland Dorgelès accompanied by an accomplice attaches brushes to the tail of Lolo, Frédé's donkey. In the presence of a bailiff, they dip the brushes in pots of orange, yellow, red and blue paint and offer the animal a carrot. The frantic movement of the tail creates on a 54 x 81 cm canvas the masterpiece titled Et le Soleil s'endormit sur l'Adriatique, signed J.R. Boronali, an anagram of Buridan's famous donkey, Aliboron.
They exhibit this Sunset at the Salon des Indépendants as a manifesto of the Excessivisme. The fruitful debates that the hoax has aroused about the meaning of art are thus a direct consequence of the artists' meetings at the Lapin Agile. Picasso's painting is a rare rendering of this environment.
Grok thought :
Quote
Alex Jacob @whoisalexjacob Apr 12, 2019
Au Lapin Agile (1904), Pablo Picasso Sold in 1989 for $40.7 million to Walter Annenberg, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. and publisher of TV Guide and Seventeen magazine. Bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), where it is currently on display.
Le Lapin Agile is perfectly located in the heart of Montmartre, rue des Saules. Before 1900 its reputation had been sordid. Its name is a pun on the sign created by the cartoonist André Gill showing a happy rabbit jumping out of a pan.
Picasso arrives in Paris at the time when a new steward nicknamed Frédé organizes evenings in this cabaret during which poets, comedians and artists from Montmartre play music, sing, recite poems, chat with conviviality. Frédé plays guitar and cello.
Au Lapin Agile is an oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm painted by Picasso in 1905 on a commission from Frédé. Pablo prepares it in the graphic style of Toulouse-Lautrec's posters, without any style link either with the blue period or with the pink period. It was sold for $ 41M by Sotheby's on November 27, 1989.
The couple in the foreground, seated in front of glasses of wine, is made up of Picasso dressed as a Harlequin and of Germaine, the woman who had rejected Casagemas but was probably Pablo's mistress throughout the blue period. Behind them, Frédé plays the guitar.
Picasso's painting hung on the wall of the cabaret until 1912. It was therefore a silent witness of the most famous hoax in the history of art.
In 1910 on the cabaret terrace, the writer Roland Dorgelès accompanied by an accomplice attaches brushes to the tail of Lolo, Frédé's donkey. In the presence of a bailiff, they dip the brushes in pots of orange, yellow, red and blue paint and offer the animal a carrot. The frantic movement of the tail creates on a 54 x 81 cm canvas the masterpiece titled Et le Soleil s'endormit sur l'Adriatique, signed J.R. Boronali, an anagram of Buridan's famous donkey, Aliboron.
They exhibit this Sunset at the Salon des Indépendants as a manifesto of the Excessivisme. The fruitful debates that the hoax has aroused about the meaning of art are thus a direct consequence of the artists' meetings at the Lapin Agile. Picasso's painting is a rare rendering of this environment.
Grok thought :
Quote
Alex Jacob @whoisalexjacob Apr 12, 2019
Au Lapin Agile (1904), Pablo Picasso Sold in 1989 for $40.7 million to Walter Annenberg, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. and publisher of TV Guide and Seventeen magazine. Bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), where it is currently on display.
- This post catalogs the 1989 Sotheby's auction of Pablo Picasso's 1904 Rose Period painting "Au Lapin Agile," depicting the artist and poet Max Jacob in a Montmartre cabaret, sold for $40.7 million to media magnate Walter Annenberg.
- It forms part of Jeopardy! champion Alex Jacob's trivia thread on late-1980s art market highs, where Japanese buyers fueled records like van Gogh's $82.5 million "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" the next year, signaling a speculative boom.
- The work, bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002, remains on permanent display there, its sale price equivalent to about $100 million today amid persistent inflation in Modern art valuations.
KAHLO
1
1940 El Sueno (La Carna)
2025 SOLD for $ 55M by Sotheby's
El sueño (La cama), oil on canvas 74 x 98 cm painted in 1940 by Frida Kahlo in 1940, was sold for $ 55M from a lower estimate of $ 40M for sale by Sotheby's on November 20, 2025, lot 13. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Asking Grok its significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Frida Kahlo's El sueño (La cama) (The Dream [The Bed]), painted in 1940, is a poignant self-portrait that encapsulates key themes in her oeuvre, including mortality, the interplay between life and death, personal suffering, and dreamlike surrealism. Measuring 74 by 98 cm and executed in oil on canvas, the work depicts Kahlo asleep in a bed floating amid clouds, her body partially entwined in thorny vines that evoke both growth and entrapment. Above her, on the bed's canopy, lies a life-sized papier-mâché skeleton (a "Judas" figure from Mexican folk tradition, which Kahlo kept in her real bedroom as a memento mori), rigged with dynamite and a lit fuse—symbolizing imminent danger and the fragility of existence. This juxtaposition of serene repose below and explosive peril above reflects Kahlo's lifelong preoccupation with death, informed by her chronic pain from a 1925 bus accident, multiple surgeries, miscarriages, and emotional turmoil.
In the context of Kahlo's career, El sueño (La cama) marks a significant moment during a period of intense personal upheaval and artistic evolution. Created shortly after her 1939 divorce from Diego Rivera (whom she remarried later in 1940) and amid her affair with Leon Trotsky, who was assassinated that year, the painting channels her psychological and physical anguish into a deeply introspective narrative. It exemplifies her shift toward more symbolic, introspective works in the late 1930s and early 1940s, blending autobiographical elements with Mexican cultural motifs and surrealist influences—though Kahlo famously rejected the Surrealist label, insisting her art depicted her reality. This piece stands out as one of her most intimate explorations of vulnerability, where the bed (a recurring motif representing confinement due to her health issues) becomes a stage for confronting mortality while asserting life's persistence through natural imagery like vines.
The painting's importance is underscored by its extensive exhibition history, including major retrospectives at Tate Modern (2005), the Walker Art Center (2007-08), and the Guggenheim Museum (1999), as well as its inclusion in seminal publications like Hayden Herrera's Frida Kahlo: The Paintings (1991) and Luis-Martín Lozano's The Complete Paintings of Frida Kahlo (2021), where it has even graced book covers. It has been analyzed as a testament to Kahlo's resilience, transforming personal trauma into universal symbols of human fragility. Provenance traces back to Galería Misrachi in Mexico City, with ownership passing through private collections before its last auction at Sotheby's in 1980; its reappearance at Sotheby's Exquisite Corpus Evening Auction on November 20, 2025 (lot 13, estimated at $40-60 million), highlights its rarity and market value, potentially shattering her auction record and affirming her status as a 20th-century icon.
Pre sale Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Sep 19
More than 80 Surrealist treasures from a Private Collection are coming to The New York Sales in November—including Frida Kahlo’s intimate self-portrait that is poised to set a new auction record. https://bit.ly/4mo8kGU
Asking Grok its significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Frida Kahlo's El sueño (La cama) (The Dream [The Bed]), painted in 1940, is a poignant self-portrait that encapsulates key themes in her oeuvre, including mortality, the interplay between life and death, personal suffering, and dreamlike surrealism. Measuring 74 by 98 cm and executed in oil on canvas, the work depicts Kahlo asleep in a bed floating amid clouds, her body partially entwined in thorny vines that evoke both growth and entrapment. Above her, on the bed's canopy, lies a life-sized papier-mâché skeleton (a "Judas" figure from Mexican folk tradition, which Kahlo kept in her real bedroom as a memento mori), rigged with dynamite and a lit fuse—symbolizing imminent danger and the fragility of existence. This juxtaposition of serene repose below and explosive peril above reflects Kahlo's lifelong preoccupation with death, informed by her chronic pain from a 1925 bus accident, multiple surgeries, miscarriages, and emotional turmoil.
In the context of Kahlo's career, El sueño (La cama) marks a significant moment during a period of intense personal upheaval and artistic evolution. Created shortly after her 1939 divorce from Diego Rivera (whom she remarried later in 1940) and amid her affair with Leon Trotsky, who was assassinated that year, the painting channels her psychological and physical anguish into a deeply introspective narrative. It exemplifies her shift toward more symbolic, introspective works in the late 1930s and early 1940s, blending autobiographical elements with Mexican cultural motifs and surrealist influences—though Kahlo famously rejected the Surrealist label, insisting her art depicted her reality. This piece stands out as one of her most intimate explorations of vulnerability, where the bed (a recurring motif representing confinement due to her health issues) becomes a stage for confronting mortality while asserting life's persistence through natural imagery like vines.
The painting's importance is underscored by its extensive exhibition history, including major retrospectives at Tate Modern (2005), the Walker Art Center (2007-08), and the Guggenheim Museum (1999), as well as its inclusion in seminal publications like Hayden Herrera's Frida Kahlo: The Paintings (1991) and Luis-Martín Lozano's The Complete Paintings of Frida Kahlo (2021), where it has even graced book covers. It has been analyzed as a testament to Kahlo's resilience, transforming personal trauma into universal symbols of human fragility. Provenance traces back to Galería Misrachi in Mexico City, with ownership passing through private collections before its last auction at Sotheby's in 1980; its reappearance at Sotheby's Exquisite Corpus Evening Auction on November 20, 2025 (lot 13, estimated at $40-60 million), highlights its rarity and market value, potentially shattering her auction record and affirming her status as a 20th-century icon.
Pre sale Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Sep 19
More than 80 Surrealist treasures from a Private Collection are coming to The New York Sales in November—including Frida Kahlo’s intimate self-portrait that is poised to set a new auction record. https://bit.ly/4mo8kGU
- Sotheby's post highlights the upcoming "Exquisite Corpus" auction in New York on November 20-21, 2025, showcasing over 80 Surrealist works from a private collection, emphasizing psychological depth in 20th-century art.
- The centerpiece is Frida Kahlo's 1940 oil "El sueño (La cama)", a dreamlike self-portrait of the artist asleep on a bed atop a barren landscape, carrying a $40-60 million estimate that could shatter her prior $34.9 million record and top the $44.4 million benchmark for any female artist.
- Amid rising demand for women-led Surrealism, the sale includes pieces by Miró, Picasso, and Kandinsky, providing collectors access to rare modernist narratives on identity and the subconscious.
'El sueño (La cama)' by Frida Kahlo soars to $54.7 million, becoming the most valuable work by a woman artist ever sold at auction.
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) November 21, 2025
Painted in 1940 during a pivotal decade in her career, marked by her turbulent relationship with Diego Rivera. pic.twitter.com/t6Sni7fIKT
2
1949 Diego y yo
2021 SOLD for $ 35M by Sotheby's
Frida Kahlo suffered a lifelong intense pain in her back after an accident. She courageously faced her condition by her art and by her quest for a passion out of the ordinary, including political commitment and bisexuality. She found her partner, unfaithful husband and accomplice in the Communist artist Diego Rivera, 20 years older than her.
Kahlo's art is made of metaphors and symbols with a high poetry. A friend of the Surrealists, she nevertheless insisted to state that she was not representing her dreams but her reality. 55 of her ca 143 paintings are self portraits.
Eager to exchange an empathy, she often made and inscribed self portraits for friends : Trotsky, her doctors. On November 16, 2021, Sotheby's sold such a self portrait for $ 35M, lot 12. This oil on masonite 30 x 22 cm painted in 1949 is dedicated to Florence and Sam, a couple of friends who were instrumental in promoting her art. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The piece was titled Diego y yo by the artist. It displays the portrait in bust of Diego Rivera on the forehead, fully centered between eyebrows and hair. This figure has at the same place the third eye of wisdom. The intimate theme of this self portrait is indeed her obsession for Diego. Three tears flow on her cheeks.
A self portrait executed in 1954, the year of her untimely death, is in the same inspiration, with the image of Diego on the breast and of her rival Maria between the eyebrows.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 17, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: Frida Kahlo’s 1949 self-portrait ‘Diego y yo (Diego and I)’ soars to $34.9M, smashing the artist’s previous $8 million public auction record. This enigmatic work is Kahlo’s final ‘bust’ self-portrait completed before her death in 1954.
Kahlo's art is made of metaphors and symbols with a high poetry. A friend of the Surrealists, she nevertheless insisted to state that she was not representing her dreams but her reality. 55 of her ca 143 paintings are self portraits.
Eager to exchange an empathy, she often made and inscribed self portraits for friends : Trotsky, her doctors. On November 16, 2021, Sotheby's sold such a self portrait for $ 35M, lot 12. This oil on masonite 30 x 22 cm painted in 1949 is dedicated to Florence and Sam, a couple of friends who were instrumental in promoting her art. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The piece was titled Diego y yo by the artist. It displays the portrait in bust of Diego Rivera on the forehead, fully centered between eyebrows and hair. This figure has at the same place the third eye of wisdom. The intimate theme of this self portrait is indeed her obsession for Diego. Three tears flow on her cheeks.
A self portrait executed in 1954, the year of her untimely death, is in the same inspiration, with the image of Diego on the breast and of her rival Maria between the eyebrows.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 17, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: Frida Kahlo’s 1949 self-portrait ‘Diego y yo (Diego and I)’ soars to $34.9M, smashing the artist’s previous $8 million public auction record. This enigmatic work is Kahlo’s final ‘bust’ self-portrait completed before her death in 1954.
- Sotheby's 2021 post celebrates the $34.9 million auction sale of Frida Kahlo's 1949 oil-on-masonite self-portrait "Diego y yo," depicting Kahlo with tears and Diego Rivera's face emerging from her forehead, symbolizing her enduring emotional turmoil in their marriage.
- The work, Kahlo's last bust-length self-portrait before her 1954 death from health complications, shattered her prior $8 million record and was consigned by the Oppenheimer family after decades in private collection.
- As of November 2025, this sale's record has been eclipsed by Kahlo's "El sueño (La cama)" fetching $54.7 million at Sotheby's, marking the highest price for any artwork by a woman at public auction.
#AuctionUpdate: Frida Kahlo’s 1949 self-portrait ‘Diego y yo (Diego and I)’ soars to $34.9M, smashing the artist’s previous $8 million public auction record. This enigmatic work is Kahlo’s final ‘bust’ self-portrait completed before her death in 1954. pic.twitter.com/NVJZ3c8FOV
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) November 17, 2021
1964 Square Quad by Warhol
2011 SOLD for $ 38.4M by Christie's
Mrs. Florence Barron loved art and wanted to own a work by Andy Warhol. It happened in 1963 or 1964. The artist already knew fame after the success of his first exhibitions. The negotiated price was $ 1,600.
Andy proposed to portray his client but she was not narcissistic and preferred to invite the artist to realize his self-portrait. He accepted.
He showed his image in four poses inspired by the cheap photos supplied by coin operated booths. Top left and bottom right, he is wise, like on a passport. Of the other two, he raises his head as trying to escape the frame.
This acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas painted in various shades of blue, overall size 102 x 84 cm, dated 1964, remained for years hung in the Barron living room in Detroit. It was sold for $ 38.4M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on May 11, 2011.
This quadruple image of an ordinary and expressionless young man in trench coat and tie, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, is not unknown.
On May 10, 2006, Sotheby's sold for $ 1.8M another copy of the position at the top left, 47 x 39 cm, also blue. They have also been published in the late 1970s.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
Andy proposed to portray his client but she was not narcissistic and preferred to invite the artist to realize his self-portrait. He accepted.
He showed his image in four poses inspired by the cheap photos supplied by coin operated booths. Top left and bottom right, he is wise, like on a passport. Of the other two, he raises his head as trying to escape the frame.
This acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas painted in various shades of blue, overall size 102 x 84 cm, dated 1964, remained for years hung in the Barron living room in Detroit. It was sold for $ 38.4M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on May 11, 2011.
This quadruple image of an ordinary and expressionless young man in trench coat and tie, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, is not unknown.
On May 10, 2006, Sotheby's sold for $ 1.8M another copy of the position at the top left, 47 x 39 cm, also blue. They have also been published in the late 1970s.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2011 post by @ArtHitParade reports the $38.4 million sale of Andy Warhol's early Self-Portrait (1963-1964), a four-panel silkscreen that set a record for his self-portraits at Christie's New York auction.
- The bidding lasted 16 minutes, marking the longest auction battle in history up to that point, underscoring the work's iconic status in Pop Art as Warhol's first major self-portrait series using his signature technique.
BACON
Intro
Looking for similarities between two opposites : Francis Bacon's self portraits and Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray.
Francis Bacon's self-portraits (produced mainly from the 1950s to the 1980s) and the supernatural portrait in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890/1891) appear as opposites at first glance: one is a series of raw, distorted paintings of the artist's own aging and tormented face, while the other is a magical canvas that absorbs the moral and physical decay of its beautiful, eternally youthful subject, Dorian Gray. Yet art historians and critics have long noted striking conceptual parallels, often framing Bacon's works as a modern inversion of Wilde's narrative.
The Core Similarity: The Portrait as Bearer of Hidden Suffering and Decay
In Dorian Gray, the portrait starts as a perfect likeness of youthful beauty but gradually becomes grotesque—warped, corrupted, and aged—as it alone records Dorian's sins, hedonism, and moral corruption. Dorian himself remains outwardly flawless, hiding his inner rot from the world.
Bacon's self-portraits reverse this dynamic: the artist (often in middle or old age) presents his real face as violently distorted, smeared, and mutilated on canvas—evoking psychological torment, mortality, and existential anguish—while in real life, Bacon maintained a composed, charismatic public persona despite personal grief (e.g., the deaths of lovers and friends). As noted in multiple auction descriptions and analyses, Bacon's canvases "become the face of his suffering and pain," where his stoically concealed grief in life is unleashed. This echoes Wilde's idea of the portrait as a hidden "mirror" of the soul's decay.
Shared Themes
Francis Bacon's self-portraits (produced mainly from the 1950s to the 1980s) and the supernatural portrait in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890/1891) appear as opposites at first glance: one is a series of raw, distorted paintings of the artist's own aging and tormented face, while the other is a magical canvas that absorbs the moral and physical decay of its beautiful, eternally youthful subject, Dorian Gray. Yet art historians and critics have long noted striking conceptual parallels, often framing Bacon's works as a modern inversion of Wilde's narrative.
The Core Similarity: The Portrait as Bearer of Hidden Suffering and Decay
In Dorian Gray, the portrait starts as a perfect likeness of youthful beauty but gradually becomes grotesque—warped, corrupted, and aged—as it alone records Dorian's sins, hedonism, and moral corruption. Dorian himself remains outwardly flawless, hiding his inner rot from the world.
Bacon's self-portraits reverse this dynamic: the artist (often in middle or old age) presents his real face as violently distorted, smeared, and mutilated on canvas—evoking psychological torment, mortality, and existential anguish—while in real life, Bacon maintained a composed, charismatic public persona despite personal grief (e.g., the deaths of lovers and friends). As noted in multiple auction descriptions and analyses, Bacon's canvases "become the face of his suffering and pain," where his stoically concealed grief in life is unleashed. This echoes Wilde's idea of the portrait as a hidden "mirror" of the soul's decay.
Shared Themes
- Moral/Psychological Decay and Mortality — Both explore how inner corruption or suffering manifests visually. Dorian's portrait decays morally (through sin); Bacon's faces decay existentially (through distortion symbolizing fragility, isolation, and the "brutality of life").
- Duality of Appearance vs. Reality — Wilde critiques vanity and hedonism: external beauty masks internal ugliness. Bacon, influenced by similar ideas of human transience, uses distortion to reveal the "raw, mutable reality" beneath composed exteriors.
- The Role of the Portrait — In both, the artwork serves as a confessional space—a substitute for the unshowable true self.
1
1969 for Valerie Beston
2023 SOLD for $ 34.6M by Christie's
Francis Bacon was not an easy fellow. Around 1969 he got bored of his Soho friends and arguably also of his lover George. The self portrait becomes a leading theme in his art.
Valerie Beston was a partner to Francis in London in business and in social life. She was overseeing his affairs at the Marlborough Gallery since 1958. Francis prepares for her use a self portrait in bright impastos in the format of his head triptych elements. The slightly bent head is careful and the hairstyle is clean. He is indeed socially acceptable and even tender behind his distorted nose and mouth.
This oil on canvas 36 x 30 cm painted in 1969 is dedicated "to V with all very best wishes, Francis". It had been exhibited in 1971 in the cornerstone solo exhibition at the Grand Palais where Valerie assisted him. Valerie kept it throughout her life. It was sold for $ 34.6M from a lower estimate of $ 22M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 5A.
Coming from the Newhouse collection, it was hung therein as a pendant with a Study of Henrietta Moraes laughing, oil on canvas of same size and same year, sold for $ 21.7M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 6C.
Asking Grok to define significance in the artist's career.
Grok thought :
The painting Self-Portrait (1969) by Francis Bacon, sold as lot 5A at Christie's London on 11 May 2023 for £34.8 million (with fees), was originally commissioned by (and belonged to) Valerie Beston, who was Bacon’s gallerist at Marlborough Fine Art from the early 1960s until his death in 1992. Its sale was one of the highlights of the 20th/21st Century evening sale that season and set a new auction record for a 1960s Bacon self-portrait.
Significance in Francis Bacon’s career
Valerie Beston was a partner to Francis in London in business and in social life. She was overseeing his affairs at the Marlborough Gallery since 1958. Francis prepares for her use a self portrait in bright impastos in the format of his head triptych elements. The slightly bent head is careful and the hairstyle is clean. He is indeed socially acceptable and even tender behind his distorted nose and mouth.
This oil on canvas 36 x 30 cm painted in 1969 is dedicated "to V with all very best wishes, Francis". It had been exhibited in 1971 in the cornerstone solo exhibition at the Grand Palais where Valerie assisted him. Valerie kept it throughout her life. It was sold for $ 34.6M from a lower estimate of $ 22M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 5A.
Coming from the Newhouse collection, it was hung therein as a pendant with a Study of Henrietta Moraes laughing, oil on canvas of same size and same year, sold for $ 21.7M by Christie's on November 15, 2018, lot 6C.
Asking Grok to define significance in the artist's career.
Grok thought :
The painting Self-Portrait (1969) by Francis Bacon, sold as lot 5A at Christie's London on 11 May 2023 for £34.8 million (with fees), was originally commissioned by (and belonged to) Valerie Beston, who was Bacon’s gallerist at Marlborough Fine Art from the early 1960s until his death in 1992. Its sale was one of the highlights of the 20th/21st Century evening sale that season and set a new auction record for a 1960s Bacon self-portrait.
Significance in Francis Bacon’s career
- Peak period of the late 1960s
Painted in 1969, this work belongs to what is widely regarded as Bacon’s strongest and most confident decade (roughly 1963–1972). During these years he refined his mature style: isolated figures in claustrophobic architectural cages, extremely fluid and expressive brushwork, and an almost violent psychological intensity. The 1969 self-portraits are among the most accomplished of his entire self-portrait series. - One of the most intimate and direct self-portraits
Unlike many of Bacon’s earlier self-portraits that are heavily distorted or partially obscured, the 1969 canvas (35.5 × 30.5 cm) presents a relatively frontal, legible face. The features are still twisted and smeared, but the sitter is unmistakably Bacon himself. Critics and scholars (e.g., Martin Harrison in the 2016 catalogue raisonné) consider it one of the most revealing and psychologically raw self-images he ever painted. - Personal context and Valerie Beston
Valerie Beston was not just Bacon’s dealer; she was one of his closest confidantes and effectively managed his daily life and finances for three decades. The fact that Bacon painted this self-portrait specifically for her (one of only a handful of works he ever gave away rather than sold) gives it an exceptional biographical importance. It was kept in her private collection until her death in 2019 and had never appeared on the market before 2023. - Rarity of small-format self-portraits from this exact moment
Bacon painted approximately 45 self-portraits in his career, but only a very small number are on the intimate 35–40 cm canvas size from 1969–1971. Of these, the Beston picture is considered the finest in private hands (the only comparable one is in the National Museum Wales, Cardiff). - Market validation of the late-1960s canon
The £34.8 million result in 2023 confirmed that the very best works from Bacon’s 1963–1971 “golden period” are now firmly in the £30–60 million bracket at auction, placing them among the most expensive post-war European paintings ever sold.
- technical and expressive mastery at the absolute height of Bacon’s powers,
- exceptional personal history (painted for his most trusted friend and never sold in his lifetime),
- extreme rarity within the already scarce group of late-1960s small self-portraits,
- and critical consensus that it is one of the most powerful self-images Bacon ever produced.
2
1969 Self Portrait
2007 SOLD for $ 33M by Sotheby's
Francis Bacon often undertook to explain his art, with passion. He is a painter, viscerally, and would not consider any other occupation.
Like his fellow Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon desires to express life. Their methods are nevertheless in total opposition. Francis does not wish to compose an image : he seeks the spontaneity. He does not inspect the model on live but is working from photographs. Each personality is complex and a single image is not enough : this is the root cause of the choice of the artist to make triptychs and, less frequently, diptychs.
In 1969, Francis Bacon paints from three instantaneous photos the portrait in triptych of Lucian Freud, which was sold for $ 142M by Christie's in 2013. Francis is 60 years old. His quest for immediacy is already accompanied by the anxiety on his inability to stop his own aging.
In real life, he takes fun at the expense of George Dyer but his Soho friends have also aged. Henrietta is increasingly ugly. A surprising portrait on which the woman is slipping away backwards from the picture frame remained unsold at Christie's on October 19, 2008.
A painting featuring him with a sad gaze is important for him, as evidenced by its simple title Self Portrait without the frequent "Study for ..." that he uses when a work belongs to a series or an intended series.
This oil on canvas 35 x 40 cm was sold for $ 33M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2007, lot 19.
The 1969 Self-Portrait by Francis Bacon (oil on canvas, approximately 14 x 12 inches / 35.5 x 30.5 cm) is a small-scale, intimate head study that sold for $33 million at Sotheby's New York on November 14, 2007 (lot 19 in their Contemporary Art Evening sale). It depicts the artist's face in a swirling, distorted manner—blending bone, sinew, and flesh—with haunting deep-set eyes emerging from a mix of vigorous brushwork and smeared paint. The composition is tightly cropped and centered on the head against a relatively plain (often dark or neutral) background, emphasizing isolation and psychological intensity.
This work dates to the late 1960s, a transitional period in Bacon's career when he was shifting from portraits of friends and lovers (like George Dyer, whom he met around 1963–64) toward more introspective self-representation. Bacon's self-portraits became increasingly obsessive in the 1970s following personal losses, including Dyer's suicide in 1971, but the 1969 example already foreshadows this inward turn.
Comparison with Other Self-Portraits from the Period (Late 1960s to Early 1970s)
Bacon's self-portraits from this era share core stylistic hallmarks--distortion, visceral materiality, and existential anguish—while varying in scale, format, and emotional tone.
Like his fellow Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon desires to express life. Their methods are nevertheless in total opposition. Francis does not wish to compose an image : he seeks the spontaneity. He does not inspect the model on live but is working from photographs. Each personality is complex and a single image is not enough : this is the root cause of the choice of the artist to make triptychs and, less frequently, diptychs.
In 1969, Francis Bacon paints from three instantaneous photos the portrait in triptych of Lucian Freud, which was sold for $ 142M by Christie's in 2013. Francis is 60 years old. His quest for immediacy is already accompanied by the anxiety on his inability to stop his own aging.
In real life, he takes fun at the expense of George Dyer but his Soho friends have also aged. Henrietta is increasingly ugly. A surprising portrait on which the woman is slipping away backwards from the picture frame remained unsold at Christie's on October 19, 2008.
A painting featuring him with a sad gaze is important for him, as evidenced by its simple title Self Portrait without the frequent "Study for ..." that he uses when a work belongs to a series or an intended series.
This oil on canvas 35 x 40 cm was sold for $ 33M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2007, lot 19.
The 1969 Self-Portrait by Francis Bacon (oil on canvas, approximately 14 x 12 inches / 35.5 x 30.5 cm) is a small-scale, intimate head study that sold for $33 million at Sotheby's New York on November 14, 2007 (lot 19 in their Contemporary Art Evening sale). It depicts the artist's face in a swirling, distorted manner—blending bone, sinew, and flesh—with haunting deep-set eyes emerging from a mix of vigorous brushwork and smeared paint. The composition is tightly cropped and centered on the head against a relatively plain (often dark or neutral) background, emphasizing isolation and psychological intensity.
This work dates to the late 1960s, a transitional period in Bacon's career when he was shifting from portraits of friends and lovers (like George Dyer, whom he met around 1963–64) toward more introspective self-representation. Bacon's self-portraits became increasingly obsessive in the 1970s following personal losses, including Dyer's suicide in 1971, but the 1969 example already foreshadows this inward turn.
Comparison with Other Self-Portraits from the Period (Late 1960s to Early 1970s)
Bacon's self-portraits from this era share core stylistic hallmarks--distortion, visceral materiality, and existential anguish—while varying in scale, format, and emotional tone.
- Composition: The 1969 Self-Portrait is a single, small-format head (bust-length or tighter), tightly framed with the face dominating the canvas and minimal spatial context. This mirrors earlier 1960s portraits (e.g., of friends like Lucian Freud or Isabel Rawsthorne) but applies it to himself. In contrast, many early 1970s self-portraits adopt triptych formats for multiple views or variations on the same face, creating a sense of fragmentation or sequential distortion (e.g., echoes of his friend portraits from the 1960s). Single-panel works like Self-Portrait (1972) or Self-Portrait (1973) remain head-focused but often include symbolic elements (such as a wristwatch in 1973 to evoke time and mortality). The 1969 piece feels more contained and direct, without the multi-panel narrative expansion seen later.
- Style and Technique: All feature Bacon's signature distortions—twisted flesh, smeared paint, and blending of features to convey raw emotion rather than literal likeness. The 1969 work's swirling mix of bone and sinew, with prominent eyes and lips, aligns closely with late 1960s/early 1970s examples: vigorous, fleshy brushstrokes; pale tones against darker grounds; and a sense of the face "materializing" from chaos. However, post-1971 works (after Dyer's death) often grow more mournful or melancholic—introspective gazes, emptied expressions, or bruised/swollen features (sometimes referencing real injuries). The 1969 portrait retains a raw, almost aggressive energy from the 1960s portrait phase, less overtly elegiac than 1972–73 self-portraits (e.g., Self-Portrait 1972, showing a mournful, reassembled face post-loss). By the late 1970s (e.g., Three Studies for a Self-Portrait, 1979–1980), influences like Rembrandt appear in more sculptural, shadowed modeling, but the core visceral distortion persists.
3
1970 Two Studies for a Self Portrait
2016 SOLD for $ 35M by Sotheby's
In 1970 Francis Bacon is desperately seeking a solution to his equation of time. He paints less and less because his old themes are no longer acceptable to him. He executes a self-portrait in diptych 35 x 30 cm per element. His attire is relaxed but the position of the head is haughty : Francis is alone in front of himself. The exuberant expressionist colors accentuate the total control of his art.
Titled Two studies for a self portrait, this work was sold for $ 35M from a lower estimate of $ 22M by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The optimistic interpretation made by Sotheby's may be questioned but their conclusion that it is the finest self-portrait by Francis Bacon is highly acceptable.
The 1970 diptych self-portrait by Francis Bacon refers to Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (1970), an oil on canvas diptych (two panels, each approximately 35.5 × 30.5 cm / 14 × 12 in., overall format similar to his small head studies). This work was painted in 1970, just before the major 1971 Grand Palais retrospective in Paris and the tragic suicide of George Dyer.It sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2016 (Contemporary Art Evening Auction) for around $30 million (achieving strong results within its $22–30 million pre-sale estimate; it had been in the same private collection since acquisition shortly after creation). Described by Sotheby's and critics as one of Bacon's finest and rarest self-portraits, it captures a notably "elated" or optimistic expression—uncommon in his oeuvre—showing the artist in a moment of relative confidence and vitality before the wave of personal losses in the 1970s.
Composition
Titled Two studies for a self portrait, this work was sold for $ 35M from a lower estimate of $ 22M by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The optimistic interpretation made by Sotheby's may be questioned but their conclusion that it is the finest self-portrait by Francis Bacon is highly acceptable.
The 1970 diptych self-portrait by Francis Bacon refers to Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (1970), an oil on canvas diptych (two panels, each approximately 35.5 × 30.5 cm / 14 × 12 in., overall format similar to his small head studies). This work was painted in 1970, just before the major 1971 Grand Palais retrospective in Paris and the tragic suicide of George Dyer.It sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2016 (Contemporary Art Evening Auction) for around $30 million (achieving strong results within its $22–30 million pre-sale estimate; it had been in the same private collection since acquisition shortly after creation). Described by Sotheby's and critics as one of Bacon's finest and rarest self-portraits, it captures a notably "elated" or optimistic expression—uncommon in his oeuvre—showing the artist in a moment of relative confidence and vitality before the wave of personal losses in the 1970s.
Composition
- Format: Diptych (two adjacent panels), each a tightly cropped head study presenting different angles or expressions of the same face. This allows a subtle sense of movement or duality—almost like sequential views or mirrored aspects—without the full fragmentation of his triptychs. The panels are small and intimate, forcing close confrontation with the distorted features.
- Background and framing: Neutral/dark grounds typical of Bacon's head studies, with minimal spatial cues; the focus remains locked on the face(s), emphasizing isolation and psychological intensity. No overt symbolic elements (e.g., no wristwatch as in 1973 self-portraits) dominate here.
- Vigorous, fleshy brushwork with swirling distortions of skin, bone, and sinew; smeared paint creates a visceral, almost sculptural materiality.
- The face(s) emerge from chaotic application—deep-set eyes, twisted mouth, contorted features—yet with an unusual lightness or buoyancy in expression compared to later works.
- Colors lean toward pale flesh tones against darker surrounds, with energetic impasto and blending that conveys raw emotion over literal likeness.
- Vs. the 1969 Self-Portraits (e.g., the Sotheby's 2007 $33M one and the Christie's 2023 $34.6M Valerie Beston-dedicated one): Those are single-panel, small-scale heads with swirling, bone-like distortions and haunting eyes on neutral grounds—intimate and confrontational. The 1970 diptych expands this by doubling the view (two panels for varied expressions/angles), introducing a rare dialogic or comparative element. Compositionally more dynamic than the contained 1969 singles, yet shares the same tight cropping, visceral technique, and pre-tragedy energy. Stylistically, the 1970 work feels slightly more "elated" and assured, less aggressively anguished than some 1969 examples.
- Vs. Early 1970s single self-portraits (e.g., Self-Portrait 1970 single version or Self-Portrait 1972/1973): Post-Dyer works grow more introspective/melancholic—bruised features, emptied gazes, symbolic additions like wristwatches (1973) for mortality/time. The 1970 diptych predates this shift, retaining 1960s vitality while experimenting with multi-panel format (rare for Bacon self-portraits; he favored triptychs for figures or narratives). Its optimism contrasts sharply with the grief-laden tone of 1972–73 pieces.
- Vs. Later 1970s triptych self-portraits (e.g., Three Studies for a Self-Portrait 1979 at the Met, or 1976/1980 examples): Those use three panels for sequential/head-turning views, deeper black voids, and Rembrandt-like shadowed modeling—more fragmented, existential, and mortality-focused amid accumulated losses. The 1970 diptych is smaller-scale, dual rather than triple, and less somber—bridging the intimate single heads of the late 1960s to the fragmented, multi-panel explorations later in the decade.
4
Special Report
Influence of Picasso's Dora Maar on Bacon's Self Portraits
Dora Maar's Influence on Francis Bacon
Dora Maar (born Henriette Theodora Markovitch, 1907–1997) was a multifaceted artist—photographer, painter, and poet—central to the Surrealist movement in the 1930s. She is best known as Pablo Picasso's companion and muse from 1936 to 1943/44, during which he created some of his most iconic and tormented portraits of her, including the "Weeping Woman" series (1937 onward), where her face is distorted in anguish, tears streaming, often in response to the Spanish Civil War and personal turmoil. These works feature fragmented features, biomorphic distortions, screaming mouths, and psychological intensity—hallmarks that resonate with Francis Bacon's own approach to portraiture.
While there is no evidence of a direct personal relationship between Francis Bacon and Dora Maar (they did not meet or correspond significantly; their circles overlapped loosely through Paris art scenes and mutual acquaintances like Isabel Rawsthorne, who was painted by both Picasso and Bacon), Maar's influence on Bacon is primarily indirect and mediated through Picasso. Bacon openly acknowledged Picasso as his greatest inspiration, particularly for breaking open the figure and reinventing portraiture in the 20th century. Picasso's depictions of Maar—raw, emotional, and violently expressive—served as a key reference point for Bacon's exploration of human vulnerability, distortion, and inner damage.
Key Aspects of the Influence
Dora Maar (born Henriette Theodora Markovitch, 1907–1997) was a multifaceted artist—photographer, painter, and poet—central to the Surrealist movement in the 1930s. She is best known as Pablo Picasso's companion and muse from 1936 to 1943/44, during which he created some of his most iconic and tormented portraits of her, including the "Weeping Woman" series (1937 onward), where her face is distorted in anguish, tears streaming, often in response to the Spanish Civil War and personal turmoil. These works feature fragmented features, biomorphic distortions, screaming mouths, and psychological intensity—hallmarks that resonate with Francis Bacon's own approach to portraiture.
While there is no evidence of a direct personal relationship between Francis Bacon and Dora Maar (they did not meet or correspond significantly; their circles overlapped loosely through Paris art scenes and mutual acquaintances like Isabel Rawsthorne, who was painted by both Picasso and Bacon), Maar's influence on Bacon is primarily indirect and mediated through Picasso. Bacon openly acknowledged Picasso as his greatest inspiration, particularly for breaking open the figure and reinventing portraiture in the 20th century. Picasso's depictions of Maar—raw, emotional, and violently expressive—served as a key reference point for Bacon's exploration of human vulnerability, distortion, and inner damage.
Key Aspects of the Influence
- Distortion and Fragmentation as Psychological Truth: Picasso's portraits of Maar (e.g., The Weeping Woman 1937, with its shattered planes, acid colors, and contorted features) parallel Bacon's own biomorphic contortions and "screaming" mouths in portraits from the 1940s onward. Bacon admired how Picasso used deformation to convey emotional reality rather than literal likeness—Bacon called this capturing the "fact" beneath appearance. Art historians and critics often draw this connection: George Dyer is frequently compared to Dora Maar as one of the most significant muses of the 20th century (Dyer for Bacon's obsessive, grief-laden series; Maar for Picasso's anguished, war-tinged ones). Dyer's portrayals echo the tormented, weeping intensity Bacon saw in Picasso's Maar works.
- Muse as Catalyst for Obsessive Portraiture: Maar's role as Picasso's tormented muse (marked by emotional abuse, creative collaboration, and eventual breakdown) provided a model for how a sitter could fuel an artist's serial, autobiographical output. Bacon applied a similar dynamic to his own muses (especially George Dyer post-1963), turning personal relationships into vehicles for existential themes of suffering, desire, and mortality. In this sense, Maar represents the archetype of the "damaged" muse whose presence inspires brutal honesty in depiction—Bacon pursued this with Dyer, Henrietta Moraes, and even himself in later self-portraits.
- Shared Themes of Anguish and the Body in Crisis: Both artists used the female (or androgynous) face/body to explore psychological horror. Picasso's Maar-inspired weeping women influenced Bacon's interest in the open mouth (screaming in terror or ecstasy), twisted flesh, and the idea of the figure as meat-like material. Bacon's biomorphism and visceral paint handling build on Picasso's innovations, amplified through Bacon's own sources (Muybridge motion studies, medical photos, Velázquez).
1982 Self Portrait as a Heel by Basquiat
2023 SOLD for $ 42M by Sotheby's
A master artist expresses his relation to the world. Many black heads by Basquiat are self portraits. In the following of Picasso, Basquiat very rarely identifies his selfies as such.
While in Los Angeles with Gagosian at the end of 1982, he takes the opportunity of his new fame to mock himself. Two grotesque painting are titled Self Portrait as a Heel and Self Portrait as a Heel (Part Two).
In that Part 2, the head has the shaggy hair matching the exaggerated Afro dreadlocks complacently featured by the artist in the period. The black body is superseded by a reverted heel with the white inscriptions BACK VIEW and COMPOSITE. Heel is also a deprecating wording for a stooge against a winning boxer.
This fake body disconnected from the head reminds a contrario the keen interest of the artist for human anatomy. An arm with sharp fingers comes out of the heel for greeting.
Part Two, acrylic and oilstick on canvas 244 x 156 cm, was sold for $ 42M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2023, lot 129.
In the next year Self Portrait as a Heel 3 was used as a scribbling in Hollywood Africans starring Jean-Michel with two fellow artists.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 16, 2023
#AuctionUpdate: A testament to the impressive scale, quality, and complexity of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s best works, ‘Self-Portrait as a Heel (Part Two)’ has sold for $42M #SothebysContemporary
While in Los Angeles with Gagosian at the end of 1982, he takes the opportunity of his new fame to mock himself. Two grotesque painting are titled Self Portrait as a Heel and Self Portrait as a Heel (Part Two).
In that Part 2, the head has the shaggy hair matching the exaggerated Afro dreadlocks complacently featured by the artist in the period. The black body is superseded by a reverted heel with the white inscriptions BACK VIEW and COMPOSITE. Heel is also a deprecating wording for a stooge against a winning boxer.
This fake body disconnected from the head reminds a contrario the keen interest of the artist for human anatomy. An arm with sharp fingers comes out of the heel for greeting.
Part Two, acrylic and oilstick on canvas 244 x 156 cm, was sold for $ 42M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2023, lot 129.
In the next year Self Portrait as a Heel 3 was used as a scribbling in Hollywood Africans starring Jean-Michel with two fellow artists.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 16, 2023
#AuctionUpdate: A testament to the impressive scale, quality, and complexity of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s best works, ‘Self-Portrait as a Heel (Part Two)’ has sold for $42M #SothebysContemporary
- The sale of Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Self-Portrait as a Heel (Part Two)" for $42 million reflects the artist's enduring influence, with his neo-expressionist works gaining value post-1988 death due to their cultural significance, as noted in a 2023 Artsy report on the art market's focus on abstract paintings.
- Basquiat's use of acrylic and oil on a 243.8 x 156.2 cm canvas, as detailed by jean-michel-basquiat.org, showcases neo-expressionism's emotional randomness, a style that diverged from conceptual art and resonated with 1980s urban graffiti culture, influencing modern art trends.
- The auction at Sotheby's in 2023 highlights a market correction after 2022's record sales, like the $1.5 billion Paul Allen collection at Christie's, suggesting that high-value art sales remain resilient despite economic uncertainty, per Artsy's 2023 Art Industry Trends analysis
