STUDY FOR A PORTRAIT, 1978

  • Study for a Portrait, 1978, Francis Bacon

    Study for a Portrait, 1978

    Oil on canvas, 35.5x 30.5cm 

    ©The Estate of Francis Bacon, Image reproduced for informational purposes only.

    Study for a Portrait, 1978, belongs to Francis Bacon’s mid-late period, a time marked by reflection, restraint and a growing preoccupation with mortality. The painting captures a solitary figure, rendered with Bacon’s signature intensity yet handled with greater subtlety than his earlier works. The composition is stripped back to its essentials, a single figure framed within a shallow space, creating an atmosphere of quiet psychological tension.
     
    The muted palette, dominated by pale flesh tones and subdued blues, reflects Bacon’s move away from the more violent colours of his 1960s portraits. In this work, emotion takes precedence over spectacle. The sitter, possibly drawn from Bacon’s close circle or a composite of remembered faces, becomes a vessel for his meditations on ageing, loss and the passage of time. Study for a Portrait, 1978, stands as a haunting example of Bacon’s ability to extract profound emotional truth from minimal means, distilling a lifetime of observation into one unflinching image of human vulnerability.

  • I loathe my own face, and I’ve done self-portraits because I’ve had nobody else to do.

    -Francis Bacon

    Francis Bacon’s self-portraits stand among the most revealing and unsettling works of his career. Painted repeatedly from the 1960s until his death, they reflect his relentless examination of identity, ageing and mortality. Bacon often turned to his own image after the deaths of those closest to him, using self-portraiture as both confession and confrontation. Rather than seeking likeness, he fragmented and distorted his features, reducing the face to a field of tension and emotion. These works are not expressions of vanity but acts of exposure, moments where Bacon stripped away the façade to confront the reality of existence, time and decay.