Francis Bacon - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, October 19, 2021 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie Mourlot, New York
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art Mezzanine Gallery, New York, 2007
    Acquired at the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    Bruno Sabatier 13
    Alexandre Tacou 8

  • Artist Biography

    Francis Bacon

    Irish-British • 1909 - 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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156

Figure Writing Reflected in a Mirror (S. 13, T. 8)

1977
Lithograph in colors, on Arches paper, with full margins.
I. 33 1/2 x 24 3/4 in. (85.1 x 62.9 cm)
S. 41 1/8 x 28 3/4 in. (104.5 x 73 cm)

An unsigned printer's proof (aside from the edition of 180 and some artist's proofs), with accompanying certificate of provenance issued by Mourlot, Paris, published by Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, framed.

Estimate
$4,000 - 6,000 

Sold for $8,190

Contact Specialist

Editions@phillips.com
212 940 1220

 

Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 19-21 October 2021