Francis Bacon

Acquired from the artist in 1951
Thence by descent to the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly lighter and softer, with the brown-grey of the backdrop in the catalogue illustration tending more towards dove grey and the sunshine yellow of the backdrop more to ochre in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is wear to all four edges, with a few spots of media loss in places. Each of the four corners is slightly worn, with some very minor splitting to the extreme corner tips of the fibreboard. There are a few tiny media accretions throughout the composition, notably to the lower right quadrant, on the lower part of the right extreme edge, as well as to to the white pigment of the figure's mouth (visible in the catalogue illustration). There are two tiny spots of paint loss in the lower left quadrant, and one towards the top of the lower right quadrant. There is a small pinhole adjacent to the upper left corner, as well as a fine tear to the top layer of the fibreboard in the upper right corner, original to the work's execution. A vertical split is visible to the fibreboard upon close inspection left of centre to the upper extreme edge (approx 15 cm. long). There are a number of tiny chips and rubs, predominantly to the extreme edges, which would appear to be inherent to the artist's choice of media. Under ultraviolet light there are two thin lines of retouching to the centre of the right side of the composition and to the top right corner respectively, along with a few other scattered spots around the edges.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed by the Francis Bacon Authentication Committee, and it will be included in the forthcoming Francis Bacon Catalogue Raisonné currently being prepared by Martin Harrison

 

Being previously unrecorded, the exact date of Untitled (Head) is not entirely certain. Without question, however, it is one of the artist's earliest single-figure portrait studies and a composition that contains the foundations for his many of his explorations into portraiture over the coming decade. Painted over a work by the hand of his teacher and mentor, Roy de Maistre - a little-known Australian artist more than twenty years his senior and one of the few people that Bacon spoke of with unreserved affection - this work introduces the idea of a railed, space-frame around the figure, and the effect found in many of his most celebrated works that Lawrence Gowing described so effectively as "curtains of light and shadow, streaming down like rain".

 

Bacon was a master and conjuror of the creative accident and the way the paint landed on the canvas frequently give him inspiration to pursue avenues hitherto unforeseen. The freedom of the brushwork here, particularly the bold vertical striations of the foreground and the figure's aggressively smeared features, surpasses anything that he had attempted previously in terms of painterly effect. Their angst-ridden and evocative application walks the tightrope between figuration and abstraction as entire facial contours are manifest from a single gesture, capturing so poignantly the sensation of the moment in the paint surface. The looseness of the composition reveals a striking confidence and energy also when compared to the highly-finished Picasso inspired works Bacon had done in the 1930s. The fluidity of the execution is far more intuitive here and the genesis of the finished image consequently reveals itself in a way that leads right back to the underlying structure of de Maistre's composition beneath.

 

Bacon was his own fiercest and least-forgiving critic and he is renowned for having destroyed nearly all his work from this period. Along with the handful of other paintings that survived the brutality of his hand during the early 1940s, these two exceptionally rare surviving paintings gives privileged and fresh insight into the nurturing and evolution of his visionary genius.