STUDY FOR PORTRAIT OF LUCIAN FREUD, 1964

  • Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud, 1964, Francis Bacon

    Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud, 1964

    Oil on Canvas, 198 x 147.5cm 

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

    Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud, 1964, captures the complex relationship between two of Britain’s most celebrated and competitive post-war artists, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Painted at the height of their friendship, the work shows Freud seated in profile, his form distorted and blurred in motion, as if caught between presence and disappearance. Bacon’s vigorous brushwork and characteristic smudging of features suggest both intimacy and unease, reflecting the volatile energy that defined their relationship.
     
    Set against a flat, muted background, the composition isolates Freud completely, forcing the viewer to focus on the tension within his posture and expression. The restrained palette of pale flesh tones and grey accents enhances the psychological atmosphere, turning the act of portraiture into something more like confrontation. Rather than a likeness, Bacon delivers a study of perception, a reflection on how we see and distort those closest to us.

  • It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.

    - Francis Bacon

    Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud shared one of the most intense, complicated and mythologised friendships in twentieth-century art. They first met in the mid-1940s through painter Graham Sutherland, and for the next three decades, their lives became deeply intertwined. Both were fascinated by the human figure and the psychology of portraiture, yet they approached painting from opposite temperaments, Freud with slow, deliberate precision, and Bacon with raw, impulsive energy.