If Francis Bacon’s art was defined by “the brutality of fact,” the attempt to get to the essence of human existence in all its forms, it was his portrayal of his lived experience through those closest to him which defined his finest work. George Dyer, Bacon’s greatest love and muse, provided some of the highest highs and lowest lows. It is his cycle of ten single-panel paintings executed during their dramatic, intertwined life together and the seminal Black Triptychs following his tragic early death which, in many ways, define Bacon’s vision.
The very first painting in this cycle, Portrait of George Dyer Crouching, was executed in 1966 at the peak of their passion for each other. It inaugurates a critical cycle of ten monumental portraits that Bacon painted between 1966 and 1968, which sees George Dyer as a conduit of the full range of human drama that defined their love affair – vulnerable and brooding; romantic; heroic and tortured – and ultimately results in, for Martin Harrison, “one of the most unflinching, even harrowing serial portrayals in art history.” (Martin Harrison, ed., Francis Bacon Catalogue Raisonné, Volume III, 1958-71, London, 2016, p. 794)
Portrait of George Dyer Crouching will be a highlight of Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction, presented in partnership with Celine, that will take place on 13 May 2024.
