Francis Bacon and the Masters
Teacher’s pack
Introduction to the exhibition Francis Bacon (1909–1992) had a fascination with the art and artists of the past. While he was a painter of contemporary life, he maintained a lifelong obsession with the great artists who came before him. This relationship with the past is made more interesting by the fact that in Bacon’s own time abstract art was at the heart of advanced painting. Because of this his work doesn’t fit in a simple way into the history of modern art. Bacon was born in Dublin, the son of a military officer. He received little in the way of formal education and left home at seventeen. He took up painting after attending an exhibition of the works of Picasso in Paris in 1927, and Picasso remained an inspiration for him throughout his career. He led a colourful existence before settling, in 1961, in South Kensington, London, where he lived and worked until the end of his life. In his studio he surrounded himself with photographic images from the history of art, and through these earlier languages of painting developed his complex, often psychologically tortured imagery. This exhibition is about the use of the past by one of the greatest modern painters: the past reinterpreted in the psychologically tense, frenetic world of a man searching for meaning at the boundary-edges of life. The exhibition brings together masterpieces from the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, with works by Bacon from the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection and other lenders.
These notes follow an informal walk-through the exhibition by members of the education team and reflect themes and ideas that might further discussion with your school. They are aimed to be just the beginning and do not provide a complete account of the exhibition. We hope that you will add your own responses, observations and thoughts to enable this to grow into a comprehensive resource. Alongside each section below, we have added some brief notes, questions, and points for discussion. A version of these notes with images included will be available on request during your school visit.
Gallery 1. The Studio
Exploring order, disorder & creativity
The first gallery includes photographs of Bacon’s studio alongside source materials and ephemera found in his studio after his death. There are examples of lots of different making processes and practices – casting, sculpting and painting, for example. The contents of this gallery raise questions about the creative process and its conditions, and about source materials and their varied influences on the artist. A team of archaeologists was employed to dismantle the studio and preserve its contents several years after Bacon’s death. Questions and reflections: •
What might the studio tell us about Bacon and about his working processes?
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What can you deduce about the borderline between order and chaos in these images?
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Would you like your classroom to look like this?
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Why do you think Bacon’s studio was dismantled and preserved so very carefully?
Key Objects: Bacon studio photographs PERRY OGDEN b. 1961 Francis Bacon’s Studio, 7 Reece Mews 1998 C-type prints on aluminium Collection: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane Considering different materials, sources & influences
In this gallery works of art, images and writings have ben assembled to give an idea of Bacon’s range of artistic interests, sources and working methods. Questions and reflections •
How many different kinds of ideas can you see represented here?
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What kinds of clues are there to suggest how Bacon processed ideas to make an image his own?
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An artwork is a product of its context, including the knowledge and background of the person creating it. What kinds of knowledge do you see in evidence here, and what can you tell about the artist’s interests and background?
Key Objects: Bacon studio ephemera Mohamed Saleh and Hourig Sourouzian Official Catalogue of the Egyptian Museum Cairo, 1987
Rene Huyghe, Van Gogh, Milano, 1958
Leaves (bound, covers and spine missing) from Eadweard Muybridge The Human Figure in Motion, 1901
Life-like or Not? Bacon, Bourdelle & Blake
This collection of works raises questions about life-like-ness – or the opposite. They may be taken from life, but are they more death-like or still? •
Does an images have to look life-like to be like life?
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Does an image taken from life necessarily look life-like?
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How does an image translate between 2D and 3D – and why?
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What are the different qualities of sculptural and two dimensional work?
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Why do artists choose one format instead of the other?
Key Objects: FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Study for Portrait II (after the Life Mask of William Blake) 1955 Oil on canvas Tate: Purchased 1979
ÉMILE-ANTOINE BOURDELLE 1861–1929 Ludwig van Beethoven Grand Masque Tragique Early 20th century, Bronze The State Hermitage, St Petersburg, 2014
Literal representation – or not? Bacon & Cezanne Can you see any similarities and /or differences between the approach to portraiture between Bacon and Cézanne? What might Bacon have learned from Cézanne’s approach, for example, in terms of proportion, scale, colour, composition? And what has he contributed and made distinctive in his own images? •
What is a portrait?
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What is a likeness?
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How have the artists used proportion and distortion?
Key Objects: FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Head of a Man (Self-Portrait) 1960 Oil on canvas Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia
PAUL CÉZANNE 1839–1906 Self-Portrait in a Cap c.1873 Oil on canvas The State Hermitage, St Petersburg, 2014
Key Themes: Order / disorder; Process; Influences; Sources; Self-portraiture; Likeness; Life-likeness; Literal and non-literal representation
Link Corridor. Work and Life
What is finished and what is unfinished? Here are some works which Bacon regarded as unfinished, or in progress. What do they tell us about his working methods and processes, or about his attitude to composition? Consider, also, if they tell us anything important about scale and its importance to the artist, or about movement and Bacon’s way of representing it on the canvas. •
Is it easy to know when a piece of work is ‘finished’? What do you think about these works – do any appear ‘finished’ for you?
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How has the artist been economical in line and use of colour?
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How does scale affect a work?
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Bacon was famous for destroying work that he was dissatisfied with, why do you think he did this?
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Fragments can be very powerful, why do you think this is?
Key objects:
FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Untitled (Female Figure) c.1970 Oil on canvas Collection: Dublin City Gallery The
FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Untitled (Three Figures) c.1981 Oil on canvas Collection: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Untitled (Seated Figure) c.1979 Oil on canvas Collection: Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
Key themes: Finished/ unfinished; The role of the sketch and of the fragment; Detail - where it is and where it isn’t; Perspective; Line; Scale; Bodies in space Faces & Feelings – Modern portraits and Ancient Egyptian art
The portraits of Lisa Sainsbury, who sat for Bacon many times, are displayed opposite Egyptian heads and masks, which he is known to have admired. What kinds of influence from these sources does Bacon demonstrate – what might he have learned from Egyptian art? Is there a significant underlying message about the ‘human condition’ or are there similarities just in terms of formal comparisons – such as shapes and features? •
Are the masks and faces portraits?
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Face shape and eyes – what similarities are there between the masks and paintings?
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Life and death – is Bacon using sources to add any philosophical content or meaning?
Key Objects: FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Sketch for a Portrait of Lisa 1955 Oil on canvas Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia
Fragment of a Mummy Mask 10-9th century BC Cartonnage, painting on plaster coating State Hermitage, 2014
Key themes: Emotions/expressions; Portraits/Likeness; Status; Surface; Fragment; Outlining of features; Isolation or lack of context
Gallery 2. Exploring rank & questioning status – Bacon & Velasquez Bacon’s Pope images are known to have derived in part from Velasquez images of Pope Innocent 10th, painted in 1650. That painting could not be included in the exhibition, but others do give an idea of the connections Bacon might have seen in general between his work and that of the artist working three centuries earlier.
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All these sitters / subjects, are men at the height of their power and rank. How has each artist dealt with this? What are the similarities and differences between them?
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Can you determine anything from these works about the artists’ attitudes to the wider contexts and implication of status and power (for both Velasquez and Bacon)?
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In what ways would you say that the style and technique of the paintings influences the representation of the sitters, and their rank or status?
Key Objects:
DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ DE SILVA 1599–1660 Portrait of the Count-Duke Olivares c.1638 Oil on canvas The State Hermitage, St Petersburg, 2014 FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Study (Imaginary Portrait of Pope Pius XII) 1955 Oil on canvas, mounted on hardboard Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia
FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Study for the Head of a Screaming Pope 1952 Oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Beekman C.and Margaret H. Cannon
Key themes: Status – reinforced or denied; Half-length portrait; Limited context; Emotions and expressions
Evoking mood & meaning - Bacon & Rembrandt Here again through a strong comparison, we have the suggestion that Bacon is pitting himself against the Masters – in this case Rembandt van Rijn, with two portraits of an old man and an old woman painted between 1652-1654. The Bacon portraits are of Sir Robert Sainsbury and Lisa, Lady Sainsbury, the benefactors of the Sainsbury Centre. The suggestion here is not that there is any specific relationship between the works, but that in general terms Bacon admired and learned from Rembrandt.
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Do you think that in each case the artist is more interested in presenting a specific likeness, or a generalised representation?
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Do you learn more about the sitter or the artist from these works?
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Whose emotions are being portrayed?
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Which words would you use to describe the mood of the paintings?
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Look carefully at the concentration of colour – would you say colour has been restricted? If so, to what effect?
Key Objects:
REMBRANDT HARMENSZ VAN RIJN 1606–1669 Portrait of an Old Man c.1652–54 Oil on canvas The State Hermitage, St Petersburg, 2014
REMBRANDT HARMENSZ VAN RIJN 1606–1669 Portrait of an Old Woman 1654 Oil on canvas The State Hermitage, St Petersburg, 2014
Key themes: Likeness and representation; Emotion and mood; Colour and feeling – restraint and expression
Showing movement & the body - Bacon & Michelangelo This group of works shows very well how Bacon looked carefully at his examples of art from the past, and at the same time was able to transform an image into his own language for his own ends. In fact one of the sources for the paintings Two Figures in a Room 1959 and Figures in a Landscape c.1956 is known to have been a photograph, which suggested the composition, but what might have been gained in addition from his looking at the work of Michelangelo? •
Compare the depiction of crouched/extended bodies
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Vocabulary associated with movement and gesture
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What can be said about structure/composition/direction?
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How do the older works make us view Bacon differently?
Key Objects: MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI 1475–1564 Crouching Boy 1524 from an original at The State Hermitage Museum Plaster, cast by Elkington & Co. c.1884. Victoria and Albert Museum
FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Two Figures in a Room 1959 Oil on canvas Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI 1475–1564 Day Late 16th century from an original Terracotta The State Hermitage, St Petersburg
Key themes: Bodies in stillness and motion; Emotion and the body; Expression and the body; Posture and poise
Creating colour & perspective in the landscape - Bacon & Van Gogh Compare these works to look at the treatment of colour and its effect on the mood of the paintings. Do you see such colours for real in the landscape? And what about the relationships between figure and ground, the use of recession - horizontality versus diagonals? •
Does the use of colour in these landscapes make you think of particular places or seasons? Do the colours in these works represent reality, emotions or impressions, or a combination?
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Perspective and angular recessions – what does this do to the symbolism of a picture?
Key Objects:
VINCENT VAN GOGH Farms near Auvers 1890 Oil on canvas, Tate: Bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop 1933
FRANCIS BACON Study for a Portrait of Van Gogh IV 1957 Oil on canvas Tate: Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1958
Key themes: Colours and expression; Colours and reality; Space and perspective; Figure and ground
Gallery 3. Face and figure in Bacon, Soutine & Derain Breaking it down & building up: line, plane & fragmentation Alongside old masters, this exhibition pairs Bacon with modern artists, whose influence he was more reluctant to admit to. Look at the use of outlining and definition in these figure and portrait studies by Bacon, compared with those by Soutine and Derain. Look at the extent to which the paintwork defines contours of the face, or works against it either to reinforce or disrupt realism. Consider highlights, lowlights, dark shadows, brightness. •
Discuss use of curved and rigid lines in different works.
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Which features are depicted/omitted?
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How has the structure been broken down?
Key Objects:
FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Three Studies for a Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne 1965 Oil on canvas Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia
CHAÏM SOUTINE 1893–1943 Self-Portrait 1916 Oil on canvas The State Hermitage, St Petersburg, 2014
Key themes: Corporeality/the body; Fragment; Distortion; Perspective; Narrative (through triptychs); Religion/secular; Colour and mood
Bodies and meaning… the animal and the human
The grouping of works in this gallery places emphasis on the body…and on the way body imagery can express powerful states of experience and emotion. Not all the bodies in Bacon’s painting are just human bodies, while others are twisted and contorted, or shown in pairs and in combat. Paintings by Bacon are shown alongside works by Bernini and Rodin in this gallery, artists who also pushed the representation of the body to new levels.
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What kinds of emotion are expressed through the body in Bacon’s paintings? Consider both pose and gesture. What words can you find to describe it?
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Is the line between human and animal imagery clear in Bacon’s paintings, and are animals depicted sympathetically, when they appear? What does their inclusion add to the meaning or composition in figure paintings?
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Look for figures in pairs, either embracing or in combat. What kinds of emotions are depicted? Can you say clearly either way?
Key objects: FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Triptych 1987 Oil on canvas Private collection, courtesy The Estate of Francis Bacon FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Untitled (Marching Figures) 1952 Oil on canvas Private collection, courtesy The Estate of Francis Bacon
Responding to the Crucifixion - Bacon, Titian & Alonso Cano
Look at the range of images which explore aspects of religious imagery, belief and feelings. Consider if they are highlighting humanity or more ethereal aspects of the spiritual. Similarly, do the compositions lead to empathy, awe, or a distancing of the viewer? •
How does Bacon use religious symbolism/imagery?
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What is contributed by the Triptych formation?
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How does glazing and framing create distance and detachment (in all Bacon’s works, not just in this section)?
Key Objects:
TIZIANO VECELLIO, KNOWN AS TITIAN c.1488–1576 Christ Bearing the Cross c.1560 Oil on canvas The State Hermitage, St Petersburg, 2014
FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Crucifixion 1933 Oil on canvas Private collection
Key themes: Humanity; Religion/secular; Empathy; Awe; Composition; Narrative; Framing; Glazing; Distance and detachment
Colour, space and meaning – Bacon, Matisse and Gaughin How does this range of imagery differ from the religious paintings – do you think the artist was using colour for its own sake – or to contribute specifically to the creation of a different atmosphere – or all of the above!? •
How does colour create emotional impact?
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Colour and space – what are the effects of pastels versus darks?
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Outlining and zoning, straight lines and curves, divisions of the pictorial ground, what are the effects and implications?
Key objects: FRANCIS BACON 1909–1992 Studies for the Human Body 1970 Oil on canvas, Private collection, courtesy Ordovas
HENRI MATISSE 1869–1954 Nymph and Satyr 1908–1909 Oil on canvas The State Hermitage, St Petersburg, 2014
HENRI MATISSE 1869– 1954 Woman in Green c.1909 Oil on canvas The State Hermitage, St Petersburg, 2014
Key themes: subject variation; Colour and emotional impact; Colour and atmosphere; Outlining and zoning; Straight lines and curves; Pictorial ground and space
Thank you for your visit to Francis and the Masters. Please add your comments and thoughts to these notes, and keep a record of your group’s observations – we would like to hear about your experience of the exhibition so that it can inform the development of this resource.
