Francis Bacon Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Francis Bacon was born in Dublin in 1909. His father, a nobleman descended from the artist's poet of the same name Francis Bacon, was an angry, domineering man who could not accept his son's homosexuality. Read the full biography

Francis Bacon was born in Dublin in 1909. His father, a nobleman descended from the artist's poet of the same name Francis Bacon, was an angry, domineering man who could not accept his son's homosexuality. At 17, young Bacon moved to London after another conflict with his father.
After several trips between Berlin and Paris, he returned to London in 1928 and rented a studio there. His early paintings clearly inherit Cubism and Surrealism (Painting, 1930), but his references are also Velázquez, Rembrandt and Cimabue. In 1934 Bacon organized an exhibition at the Transition Gallery: critics firmly opposed his art; two years later, one of his works was rejected by the International Exhibition of Surrealism. Constantly frustrated by numerous criticisms, Bacon destroyed many of his paintings. Unfinished works between 1937 and 1941.
In 1945, in an exhibition at the Lefèvre Gallery in Paris, Three Studies of Figures at the Foot of the Cross (1944) caused a huge scandal. The violence of the images greatly shocked the public, who had been touched by the images of the Second World War. The trauma of the mass graves reappeared on the cruelly tortured corpses, reduced to the most despicable and merciless state of carrion. Bacon's painterly treatment of his work throughout his career.
Whether human or animal, the Velázquez-inspired corruption of the flesh pervades his paintings (Studies of Man and Dog, 1952). As Gilles Deleuze pointed out in a famous essay, “He painted the head, not the face.”
Bacon lives on the merit of the gallery owner. His alcoholism and gambling, and his frequent attendance at the Monte Carlo Casino between 1946 and 1950, hindered its creation. The darkness of his paintings is unprecedented (Head I, 1948). A series of popes began, once again inspired by Velázquez, who created a horrific tortured animal corpse of Innocent X (Meat Figure, 1954), the same corpse that would pose for Vogue magazine soon after.
In the early 1950s, Bacon met Lucian Floyd: they began a three-year relationship that was a mixture of love, friendship, invective and mutual jealousy. The two painters' respective portraits and self-portraits reflect the long-term evolution of painting. But Bacon did not deprive himself of his freedom. Inspired by Muybridge's clichés, he portrays himself fully coupled with his lover, Peter Lacy (Two Figures, 1953). This scene illustrates that his life is one of sex, violence and alcoholism. Bacon was beaten, sometimes almost killed, but he didn't care.
In 1954 he participated in the Venice Biennale and in 1955 he held his first retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Art. In 1961 he moved to 7 Reece Mews in London. “The chaos suggests images,” says Bacon, of the place transformed into a real cabin with hundreds of brushes, canvases and magazines. The Crucifixion of Three Studies (1962) works in dark tones of bloody black and red.
Bacon's price rose, but his debts increased. He joined the Marlborough Gallery, which promised him a salary and an exhibition at the Tate Gallery. The exhibition takes place in 1962 in a freezing atmosphere: the day before its opening, her lover commits suicide.
The tragedy was repeated in a retrospective at the Grand Palais in 1971. The painter's other lover, George Dyer, was found dead in the bathroom of his hotel room the day before the opening. excess? suicide? The facts were kept secret during the incident. Ironically, in the early evening, President Pompidou admired George Dyer's painting of bacon sitting on the toilet. Next to him, Bacon was pale and silent. He would later paint one of his saddest triptychs (Triptych, May-June 1973, 1973).