A focused look at the British painter’s powerful portraits and self-portraits
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The National Portrait Gallery’s first exhibition dedicated to Francis Bacon will examine his sustained and complex engagement with portraiture, encompassing around 55 works from the late 1940s until his death in 1992.
Bacon’s evolving approach challenged traditional definitions of the genre. He found it inhibiting to paint his sitters from life, preferring to work from photographs and his memory in the studio. He sought inspiration in those closest to him, portraying his lovers Peter Lacy and George Dyer, and friends and fellow artists Lucian Freud and Isabel Rawsthorne in images that transcend likeness.
Through his powerfully emotive portraits and self-portraits, Bacon probed continually at what it means to be human. Alongside his paintings, “Francis Bacon: Human Presence” will feature rarely seen photographs and film footage of the artist by some of the 20th century’s leading photographers, including Cecil Beaton and Bill Brandt. Read more about the artworks on display and hear from the curators behind this landmark exhibition.
Francis Bacon, “Three Studies of Isabel Rawsthorne,” 1967 © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2024. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd. Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
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