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20

Francis Bacon

Miroir de la tauromachie

Estimate
£50,000 - 70,000
Lot Details
The complete set of four lithographs in colours, on folded sheets of Arches paper (as issued) with letterpress text on the inside pages, three full sheets and one with full margins,
1990
one I. 25 x 21 cm (9 7/8 x 8 1/4 in.)
all S. 47.9 x 35.9 cm (18 7/8 x 14 1/8 in.)
all signed in pencil, numbered 111/150 in pencil on the colophon (there were also 5 hors commerce impressions in Roman numerals), published by Galerie Lelong, Paris, framed.

Francis Bacon

Irish-British | B. 1909 D. 1992
Francis Bacon was a larger-than-life figure during his lifetime and remains one now more than ever. Famous for keeping a messy studio, and even more so for his controversial, celebrated depictions of papal subjects and bullfights, often told in triptychs, Bacon signified the blinding dawn of the Modern era. His signature blurred portraits weren't murky enough to stave off his reputation as highly contentious—his paintings were provocations against social order in the people's eye. But, Bacon often said, "You can't be more horrific than life itself."
 
In conversation with yet challenging the conventions of Modern art, Bacon was known for his triptychs brutalizing formalist truths, particularly Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, which Bacon debuted in London in 1944, and Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which became famous when it set the record for most expensive work of art at auction at the time it sold in 2013.
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