TRIPTYCH (LEFT), 1983

  • Triptych 1983 (left panel)
    Triptych 1983 (left panel), 1983
    Lithograph, Edition Size:180, H 67 cm x W 50cm
    ©The Estate of Francis Bacon
    Triptych 1983 (Left Panel) reflects Francis Bacon’s refined late style, where clarity and restraint replaced the raw physicality of his earlier work. The composition features a solitary, distorted figure set against Bacon’s signature orange background, a vibrant yet unsettling field of colour. The figure appears suspended within the space.
     
    By the early 1980s, Bacon’s triptychs had become more reflective, exploring memory, ageing, and the inevitability of decline. In this panel, the sharp orange backdrop serves as both illumination and confinement, surrounding the figure with a sense of heat and exposure. It is a study in contrast, vivid in tone yet restrained in emotion, capturing Bacon’s enduring ability to fuse colour, form, and isolation into a single, haunting image.
     
    Interested in buying or selling?
    Enquire

  • “I feel ever so strongly that an artist must be nourished by his passions and his despairs.”

     

    – Francis Bacon

    In his triptychs from the 1970s and 1980s, orange often replaced the darker, more oppressive tones of his earlier decades. It brought a sharper focus to the figure, isolating it within a flat, saturated field that acted almost like a stage. The colour’s duality, simultaneously vivid and suffocating, mirrored Bacon’s view of existence as something both vital and fragile. The orange backgrounds, particularly in works like Triptych 1983, became a kind of psychological heat, amplifying the tension between the body’s presence and its inevitable disappearance.