Francis Bacon - Evening & Day Editions London Wednesday, January 17, 2024 | Phillips

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  • Literature

    Bruno Sabatier 5
    Alexandre Tacou 15

  • 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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7

Seated Figure (after, Study for a Portrait 1981) (S. 5, T. 15)

1983
Etching and aquatint in colours, on Arches paper, with full margins.
I. 72.7 x 54 cm (28 5/8 x 21 1/4 in.)
S. 101.4 x 70.9 cm (39 7/8 x 27 7/8 in.)

Signed and numbered VII/XCIX in pencil (one of 99 impressions in Roman numerals, there were also 99 impressions on Guarro paper in Arabic numerals and 15 artist's proofs for each paper), published by Ediciones Polígrafa, S.A., Barcelona, unframed.

Estimate
£8,000 - 12,000 ‡♠

Sold for £15,240

Contact Specialist

Because of technical difficulties our sale is delayed. We should resume soon. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

EditionsLondon@Phillips.com
+44 20 7318 4024

Rebecca Tooby-Desmond
Specialist, Head of Sale, Editions
rtooby-desmond@phillips.com

Robert Kennan
Head of Editions, Europe
rkennan@phillips.com

Anne Schneider-Wilson
Senior International Specialist, Editions
aschneider-wilson@phillips.com

Louisa Earl
Associate Specialist, Editions
learl@phillips.com
 

Evening & Day Editions

London Auction 17 - 18 January 2024