PORTRAIT OF GEORGE DYER TALKING, 1966

  • Portrait of George Dyer Talking, 1966, Francis Bacon

    Portrait of George Dyer Talking, 1966

    Oil on Canvas, 198.2 x 147.3cm 

    ©The Estate of Francis Bacon, image reproduced for educational purposes 

    Portrait of George Dyer Talking, 1966, is one of Francis Bacon’s most celebrated and revealing portraits, painted at the height of his relationship with his long-time partner and muse, George Dyer. Created in oil on canvas, the work presents Dyer seated in profile, caught mid-motion within one of Bacon’s familiar circular enclosures. His body twists sharply, his form blurred and fractured by smears of paint, as if caught between material presence and dissolution.
     

    The painting embodies the intensity and volatility of Bacon and Dyer’s relationship. Dyer, a former petty criminal from London’s East End, had entered Bacon’s life in the early 1960s and quickly became one of his most frequent and emotionally charged subjects. In this portrait, Bacon captures him not through likeness but through sensation, the tension in the body, the flicker of instability beneath the surface. The dark, almost theatrical background isolates Dyer completely, focusing attention on the fragility and movement of the figure.

  • I would like, in my arbitrary way, to bring one nearer to the actual human being.

    - Francis Bacon

    George Dyer (1933–1971) was Francis Bacon’s most significant muse and one of the most recognisable figures in his art. Born in London’s East End, Dyer grew up in a working-class family surrounded by crime and poverty. Before meeting Bacon, he spent much of his early adulthood involved in petty theft and short prison sentences. Their paths famously crossed in 1963, accounts vary, but the best-known version claims Dyer tried to burgle Bacon’s flat in South Kensington, only for the artist to catch him in the act and offer him a drink instead. Whatever the truth, the encounter sparked a relationship that would shape Bacon’s life and career.