Francis Bacon - Evening & Day Editions London Thursday, September 10, 2020 | Phillips

Evening & Day Editions

London Auction 10 September 2020

  • Literature

    Bruno Sabatier 20
    Alexandre Tacou 20

  • 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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12

Francis Bacon

Étude pour un portrait de John Edwards (after, Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards, 1984)

1986
Lithograph in colours, on Arches paper, with full margins.
I. 60.6 x 45.1 cm (23 7/8 x 17 3/4 in.)
S. 80.7 x 59.7 cm (31 3/4 x 23 1/2 in.)
Signed and numbered 135/150 in pencil (there were also 5 artist's proofs), published by Yves Peyré for the literary review L'Ire des Vents, Paris, framed.

Estimate
£7,000 - 10,000 ♠

Sold for £16,250

Contact Specialist
Rebecca Tooby-Desmond
Specialist, Head of Sale, Editions, Associate Director
London
+44 207 318 4079

Evening & Day Editions

London Auction 10 September 2020