Francis Bacon (1909 – 1992)
Irish-born artist Francis Bacon has long been associated with debauchery and hedonism, once claiming “chaos suggests images to me.” That notorious licentiousness, however, is undoubtedly part of Bacon’s enduring appeal and one of the reasons his work is still so sought-after, with most Francis Bacon prints selling for at least £1,000, and many going up to £50,000.
The raw intensity with which he lived his life is clearly reflected in the nightmarish multitude of complex, disturbing, and distorted figures who populate his paintings, and in the savage, impasto brushwork he tended to employ. But the man behind the paintings was equally as interesting and unforgettable as his work, so below are seven facts you may not have known about Francis Bacon.
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A Picasso Exhibition Inspired Him To Become An Artist
After being expelled from home due to an increasingly strained relationship with his family, a young Francis Bacon found himself drifting somewhat aimlessly through first London, then Berlin, and eventually ending up in Paris. It was here, in 1927, that he attended an exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s drawing at the Galerie Paul Rosenberg. The exhibition struck a chord somewhere inside Bacon, and he later stated, “at that moment I thought, ‘Well, I will try and paint too.’” His fascination with Picasso endured throughout his life, although the two artists never met.
The Most Expensive Francis Bacon Print Fetched £85,000 At Auction
Miroir de la Tauromachie is a series of images depicting a bullfighter and a bull locked in a savage dance of death. It was sold by Sotheby’s in March 2015 for a staggering £85,000, and it remains one of the most consistently sought-after Francis Bacon prints on the market today, regularly fetching upwards of £40,000 at auction. If you own this or another Francis Bacon print, why not get in touch today to find out more about how much it might be worth?
Bullfighting was a subject Bacon was fascinated by, returning to it time and time again throughout his career. He probably first encountered the cruel sport during his travels in Spain and the south of France. The violence and the pageantry drew him in, and he famously called the spectacle “a marvellous aperitif to sex.”
Miroir de la Tauromachie Sold by Sotheby’s
For A Time, He Was An Interior Designer
Bacon had no formal training as an artist, and despite starting to draw and paint in the wake of the Picasso exhibition, at the same time, he also decided to become an interior decorator and furniture designer. He attracted some attention in this line of work and managed to sell a few pieces, but his future was by no means secure. In later years, after establishing his reputation as a serious painter, he dismissed his time in interior decorating and rarely talked about it, almost as if he was ashamed of it. But the legacy of the venture lingers on in his paintings, in the geometric interiors and eye catching use of space that is virtually ubiquitous in his artwork.
He Destroyed Much Of His Own Work
Despite now being among the best-selling artists in the world, Francis Bacon was one of his own harshest critics. Very little of what he painted in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s survives after he destroyed a significant portion of it, perhaps partly in response to being rejected by the International Surrealist Exhibition because his work was “insufficiently surreal.” This pattern of destruction continued throughout Bacon’s life; after his death, almost one hundred ruined canvases were discovered in his studio. Many of them had been slashed with a knife or had the central figure sliced out, presumably because the artist didn’t think the work was good enough.
His Lifelong Asthma Meant He Didn’t Fight In World War II
Francis Bacon had suffered from asthma since he was a child, and it continued to plague him until the end of his life. Bacon’s father, an army officer, resented his son’s illness, and it contributed to the strained relations between the pair. It also meant that when the Second World War broke out in 1939, Bacon was pronounced unfit for active service. However, this didn’t stop him from joining Civil Defence and working in Air Raid Precautions (ARP), but his asthma was soon aggravated by the dust from the rubble of London’s bombed buildings, so he resigned and rented a cottage in Hampshire instead.
He Painted On The Reverse Side of Canvases
At some point whilst travelling and painting on the Côte d’Azur in 1946 and ‘47, Francis Bacon discovered by happy accident that he preferred painting on the reverse side of the canvas. He subsequently claimed he’d run out of primed canvases, and so he decided to experiment on the unprimed side instead. He found he liked the rough texture and the challenge of painting on raw canvas, and he continued working this way for the rest of his life.
Astonishingly, fragments of Francis Bacon’s paintings have since been discovered on the reverse side of canvases used by an aspiring painter, Lewis Todd. They were sold by Surrey auctioneers Ewbank’s for a total of £35,800 in 2013.
Francis Bacon’s Studio
After His Death, His Studio Was Moved
Francis Bacon’s studio at 7 Reece Mews in South Kensington was notoriously cluttered and chaotic, yet it was where the artist created many of his best pieces, and where he felt most at home. He moved into the studio in October 1961, and he continued to paint in it until the end of his life. Bacon almost always worked more from images and memory than from life, and the small room was crammed so full of photographs, illustrations, newspapers, and books on all subjects that it sometimes became hard to move around in.
After Bacon’s death, the sole heir to his estate, John Edwards, decided it was important to preserve the artist’s studio for posterity. In 1998, a team of curators, conservators, art historians, and archaeologists painstakingly mapped out the space and the location of over 7,000 items before dismantling the entire studio (including the walls, doors, floor, and ceiling) and transporting the contents to Ireland.
Since then, Francis Bacon’s studio has been reassembled with exact precision at The Hugh Lane gallery in Dublin. Though he was extremely secretive and protective of the space during his life, the studio is now on display to the public alongside several of Bacon’s original paintings, where, hopefully, it will be preserved for many years to come.
