Francis Bacon
Paper: 88.6 x 60.5 cm.
Francis Bacon’s ‘Study of the Human Body from a Drawing by Ingres’, from 1984, exemplifies Bacon’s ongoing interest in understanding and exploring human anatomy.
Bacon had a lifelong fascination with Ingres, and he often used the French Neo-Classical artist as an inspiration for his works, e.g. the theme of Oedipus and the Sphinx, of which Ingres had made paintings now displayed at the National Gallery in London and at the Louvre.
Like Ingres, Bacon champions geometrical harmony and archaism, as both these characteristics contribute to a synthesis of the ideal human figure.
Francis Bacon was an Irish-born English figurative painter known for his raw, unsettling imagery. Focusing on the human form, his subjects included crucifixions, portraits of popes, self-portraits, and portraits of close friends, with abstracted figures sometimes isolated in geometrical structures.
Original Lithograph in colours,1984, on Arches watermarked paper, with full margins, signed by the artist in pencil
Edition: /180 There were also some HC copies made
Literature:
Francis Bacon: Estampes - collection Alexandre Tacou Number 18
Bruno Sabatier, Francis Bacon: The Graphic Work, no. 19.
Size: Image: 620 x 461 mm; Paper: 886 x 605 mm.
Published by: Galerie Lelong, Paris
Note: The prototype for this was a Diptych in Oil, pastel and dry transfer lettering, on canvas made in 1982. The work is now in Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Since his death Bacon’s reputation and market value have grown steadily, and his work is among the most acclaimed, expensive and sought-after.
