Francis Bacon (artist)
Francis Bacon was born on the 28th of October 1909 at 63 Lower Baggot Street in Dublin. His father, Army Captain Anthony Edward Mortimer Bacon, was a racehorse trainer and veteran of the Second Boer War. The family moved frequently between Ireland and England during his childhood. They lived in Cannycourt House in County Kildare from 1911 before moving to Westbourne Terrace in London. After the First World War, they returned to Ireland where Bacon lived with his maternal grandmother at Farmleigh. This constant movement created a deep sense of displacement that followed him for decades.
Bacon's relationship with his father was violent and abusive. A story emerged in 1992 claiming his father had arranged for grooms to systematically horsewhip him as a child. He suffered from asthma and an allergy to horses throughout his life. His poor health meant his formal education was sporadic. He attended Dean Close boarding school in Cheltenham only from 1924 to 1926. At a fancy-dress party he dressed as a flapper with high heels and lipstick. Later that year he was thrown out of Straffan Lodge after his father found him wearing his mother's underwear.
In the latter half of 1926 Bacon spent time in London on an allowance of £3 a week from his mother's trust fund. He survived by avoiding rent and engaging in petty theft while reading Friedrich Nietzsche. He briefly tried domestic service but resigned when bored. He was sacked from a telephone-answering position after writing a poison pen letter to the owner. He drifted through London's homosexual underworld aware he could attract wealthy men who provided food and wine.
He moved to Berlin in 1927 where he saw Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. These films later became major influences on his work. He spent two months there before his companion left. Then at age 17 he lived for three months near Chantilly with pianist Yvonne Bocquentin. In Paris he visited art galleries including the Château de Chantilly where he saw Nicolas Poussin's Massacre of the Innocents. This painting would appear repeatedly in his later work.
Bacon returned to London in winter 1928 to work as an interior designer. He took a studio at 17 Queensberry Mews West sharing it with Eric Allden and his childhood nanny Jessie Lightfoot. In 1929 he met Eric Hall who became both patron and lover in a torturous relationship. He abandoned serious painting for nearly a decade after early works failed to gain acceptance.
By 1944 Bacon had gained confidence and developed his unique signature style. His Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion summarised themes from earlier paintings including Picasso's biomorphs and Greek Furies. It is generally considered his first mature piece while he regarded all prior work as irrelevant. The painting caused a sensation when exhibited in 1945 and established him as a foremost post-war painter.
John Russell observed in 1971 that there was painting before this triptych and painting after it but no one could confuse the two. The work sealed his reputation as a uniquely bleak chronicler of the human condition. Before this breakthrough he had visited Paris in 1935 where he bought a secondhand book on anatomical diseases containing hand-coloured plates of open mouths. These images haunted him for the rest of his life along with scenes from Battleship Potemkin.
Bacon's main haunt was The Colony Room club at 41 Dean Street in Soho known as Muriel's after its proprietor Muriel Belcher. He joined the day after its opening in 1948 and was adopted by Belcher as a daughter. She allowed free drinks and gave him £10 weekly to bring friends and patrons. Regular attendees included painters Lucian Freud Frank Auerbach Patrick Swift and photographer John Deakin.
In 1952 Bacon met Peter Lacy a pianist and former RAF pilot who became the love of his life. Their relationship involved significant S&M aspects where Bacon would deliberately provoke acts of violence from Lacy. Lacy moved to Tangier in the mid-1950s and Bacon spent time there too. In 1962 Lacy died from alcoholism the day before Bacon opened a retrospective exhibition at the Tate.
He met George Dyer in 1963 at a pub though myths claim they met when Dyer burgled his flat. Dyer came from London's East End with a family steeped in crime. Bacon acted as protector and father figure to the insecure younger man. By 1970 Bacon provided enough money for Dyer to stay permanently drunk while Dyer's erratic behaviour wore thin with their social circle.
The inspiration for recurring screaming mouths came from medical textbooks including Kathleen Clark's 1939 book of X-ray photographs. He also used photographic stills of the nurse in the Odessa Steps scene from Eisenstein's 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin. Bacon saw this film in 1935 and kept a photo of the screaming nurse in his studio throughout his career.
His Pope series largely based on Velázquez's 1650 painting Portrait of Innocent X stripped figures of hierarchical power. They exposed them as alienated figures serving as allegories of human suffering and despair. The best known work is Head VI where the focus becomes an open mouth and human scream. His 1953 Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X is regarded by art historians as one of his masterpieces.
Bacon described the screaming mouth as a catalyst for his work incorporating its shape when painting chimeras. By the early 1950s it became an obsessive concern according to biographer Michael Peppiatt who said explaining the scream would help understand the whole art of Francis Bacon.
In October 1971 Dyer joined Bacon in Paris for the opening of his retrospective at the Grand Palais. On the morning of the 24th of October they discovered Dyer's body after he had taken an overdose of barbiturates. Bacon continued with promotional activities while displaying powers of self-control few could aspire to. He returned to London later that week to comfort Dyer's family.
During the funeral many of Dyer's friends including hardened criminals broke down in tears. One friend screamed you bloody fool as the coffin was lowered. Bacon remained stoic but suffered emotional and physical breakdown in following months. Over two years he painted single canvas portraits of Dyer and three highly regarded Black Triptychs detailing moments before and after the suicide.
From this point death haunted his life and work. Though outwardly stoic he admitted to friends that daemons disaster and loss now stalked him like Greek Furies. His art became more sombre inward-looking and preoccupied with passage of time and death marking a shift from earlier extreme subject matter.
By 1989 Bacon was the most expensive living artist after one triptych sold at Sotheby's for over US$6 million. In 2007 actress Sophia Loren consigned Study for Portrait II from her late husband Carlo Ponti's estate to Christie's. It auctioned for £14.2 million setting a record price at that time.
In 2008 the Triptych 1976 sold at Sotheby's for €55.465 million then a record for Bacon and highest price paid for postwar art. In 2013 Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold at Christie's New York for $142.4 million surpassing both previous records. This became the highest auction price of any artwork until Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi later sold for higher sum.
The Popes and large triptychs commanded highest prices throughout his career. Posthumously his work grew among most acclaimed expensive and sought-after on art market. A number of major works previously assumed destroyed re-emerged in late 1990s including early 1950s pope paintings and 1960s portraits.
Bacon died of heart attack on the 28th of April 1992 aged 82 while admitted to Clinica Ruber hospital in Madrid. His chronic asthma had developed into severe respiratory condition preventing speech or proper breathing. He bequeathed estate valued at £11 million to heir John Edwards who became sole legatee.
In August 1998 Edwards and executor Brian Clarke donated contents of studio at 7 Reece Mews to Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. The studio remained largely untouched since death in 1992. Archaeologists curators and conservators oversaw relocation mapping over 7,000 items before rebuilding original doors floor walls and ceiling.
Opened to public in 2001 the relocated studio features comprehensive database entries for every item. Records include approximately 570 books 1,500 photographs 100 slashed canvases 1,300 torn book leaves 2,000 artist materials and 70 drawings. Other categories cover correspondence magazines newspapers and vinyl records preserving his working environment as museum exhibit.
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Common questions
When and where was Francis Bacon born?
Francis Bacon was born on the 28th of October 1909 at 63 Lower Baggot Street in Dublin. His father was Army Captain Anthony Edward Mortimer Bacon, a racehorse trainer and veteran of the Second Boer War.
What influenced Francis Bacon's use of screaming mouths in his paintings?
The inspiration for recurring screaming mouths came from medical textbooks including Kathleen Clark's 1939 book of X-ray photographs. He also used photographic stills of the nurse in the Odessa Steps scene from Eisenstein's 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin which he saw in 1935.
Who were the main lovers of Francis Bacon during his life?
In 1952 Bacon met Peter Lacy who became the love of his life until Lacy died from alcoholism in 1962. He later met George Dyer in 1963 who remained with him until Dyer took an overdose of barbiturates on the 24th of October 1971.
Which painting established Francis Bacon as a foremost post-war painter?
His Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion is generally considered his first mature piece while he regarded all prior work as irrelevant. The painting caused a sensation when exhibited in 1945 and established him as a foremost post-war painter.
When did Francis Bacon die and what was the cause of death?
Bacon died of heart attack on the 28th of April 1992 aged 82 while admitted to Clinica Ruber hospital in Madrid. His chronic asthma had developed into severe respiratory condition preventing speech or proper breathing before his death.