Francis Bacon // Biography

  • Francis Bacon in his studio in London in 1974.

    Francis Bacon in his studio in London in 1974. 

    ©Francis Bacon, ©Alamy, commercial license 

    Francis Bacon (1909–1992) was an Irish-born British painter whose work remains some of the most powerful and unsettling in twentieth-century art. Renowned for his raw and often unsettling depictions of the human form, Bacon examined what it means to be human in all its extremes, confronting fear, desire, violence, and vulnerability with unflinching honesty. His subjects ranged from crucifixions and portraits of popes to self-portraits and intimate portrayals of close friends, frequently presented within stark settings that heightened their sense of isolation.
     
    Bacon began painting seriously in his late twenties, after years spent drifting between interior design, gambling, and the bohemian social world of Soho. His breakthrough came in 1944 with Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, a triptych that announced his singular vision and cemented his reputation as one of the defining artists of post-war Britain.

  • Later life

    Isolation, reflection, mortality.
  • Panel two of 'Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer', 1963
    Panel two of 'Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer', 1963

    Oil on canvas,Triptych: Each panel: 14 x 12 in. (35.5 x 30.5 cm)

    ©The Estate of Francis Bacon, Images repoduced for educational purposes only
    Throughout his career, Bacon returned to the same subjects time and again, reworking and refining them with each new painting. The screaming popes of the 1950s, the crucifixions of the 1960s, and the self-portraits of his later years all reflect his continuing fascination with the human condition, the tension between inner turmoil and outward restraint. Rather than seeking variety, Bacon used repetition as a way of deepening his understanding of emotion and form, painting and repainting familiar figures to expose different psychological states. His work became less about representation and more about the act of confronting the rawness of life, stripped of sentimentality or illusion.
     
    George Dyer entered Bacon’s life in 1963 and quickly became both muse and companion. Coming from London’s East End, Dyer brought with him a sense of vulnerability and volatility that intrigued Bacon, whose portraits of him remain among the artist’s most affecting. These works, painted throughout the 1960s, reveal a closeness rarely seen elsewhere in Bacon’s art. They balance admiration with unease, depicting Dyer as both subject and symbol of human fragility. The relationship, incredibly intense and often unstable, left a deep mark on Bacon’s later work, particularly following Dyer’s death in 1971, which inspired the Black Triptychs and a series of sombre portraits that stand as some of Bacon’s most personal reflections on loss and memory.

  • “I think of life as meaningless, but we give it meaning while we exist.”

     

    - Francis Bacon

     

    Bacon rejected the idea that his paintings carried fixed meanings or narratives. When questioned by Melvyn Bragg in 1985 about Triptych, May–June 1973, he admitted it was “the nearest I’ve ever done to a story, because you know that is the triptych of how he [Dyer] was found”, acknowledging its connection to George Dyer’s death. He explained that the work reflected not only that loss but also the deaths of many friends, “dying like flies” around him. This period of grief led to a series of introspective self-portraits, often marked by symbols of time and mortality, including the recurring image of a watch, a subtle reference to both ageing and identity.

  • Bacons Studio

    Frozen in time     ©Sailko, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Francis Bacon’s London studio at 7 Reece Mews has become almost as legendary as the paintings created within it. Preserved...
    Image of Bacon's studio in Dublin, which has been preserved 
    ©Sailko, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Francis Bacon’s London studio at 7 Reece Mews has become almost as legendary as the paintings created within it. Preserved exactly as he left it after his death in 1992, the space offered a rare glimpse into the chaos and precision behind his creative process. In 1998, Bacon’s heir John Edwards and the artist Brian Clarke donated the entire contents of the studio to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. A team of specialists meticulously catalogued and mapped more than 7,000 items, from torn photographs and slashed canvases to books, paintbrushes and fragments of imagery pinned to the walls, before reconstructing the studio in Ireland piece by piece.

     

    When it opened to the public in 2001, the studio revealed the disorder that fuelled Bacon’s work. Layers of paint, debris, and discarded materials filled the small space, showing how he worked instinctively amid apparent chaos. Bacon’s studio remains a record of his working life, a confined space where memory, instinct, and repetition met.