Francis Bacon
Bacon is one of the towering figures in British art. His work has performed exceptionally well at auction in recent years and his prints offer collectors a spectacular entry point to one of the most vivid and sought-after oeuvres in the contemporary market. Only thirty-six of his paintings were reproduced as editions during his lifetime, a relatively small number for such an important and coveted artist.
A hand-signed work by Bacon represents a spectacular piece of art history. His raw, unsettling portrayal of the human form was expressed through a number of key motifs, in particular his crucifixions, popes, portraits and wrestling figures. His reputation was secured in 1944 with the exhibition of the startling Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. Over the following decades he built up an unassailable reputation as the greatest British painter since Turner.
He saw images "in series", and generally preferred to explore a single subject over a sustained period. During the 1940s his work was often focused upon the theme of the male head isolated in a room or geometric structure; this gave way in the 1950s to the iconic series of "screaming popes", which was in turn followed by variations upon the crucifixion. From the mid-1960s he produced an extensive group of portraits featuring his friends and drinking companions. During the 1970s his work became more sombre and insular, with an increasing awareness of the passage of time and the inevitability of death. His final works in the 1980s and early 90s are technically precise distillations of the human figure. Common to all these phases of his work is the regular appearance of his lovers and companions Eric Hall, Peter Lacy, George Dyer and John Edwards.
During the past twenty years Bacon's work has seen phenomenal growth in the art market. His 1966 Portrait of George Dyer Talking sold for £4 million when it was auctioned at Christie's in 2000; at another sale fourteen years later it achieved £42 million. Triptych (1976) set a new record for a contemporary artist when it sold for £44.2 million at Sotheby's in 2008. This was again surpassed in November 2013 when Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud achieved a then record price of £89.4 million at Christie's in New York.
Bacon's sensitivity to the practice of repetition and sequence dovetails beautifully with the philosophy of printmaking. He worked with a number of major print studios throughout his life to create etchings and lithographs after some of his most acclaimed paintings. They represent a highly-coveted facet of his work at an infinitely more accessible price point. These printed works are some of the most desirable pieces available to collectors today.
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