We know Bacon and his oeuvre, for the great ability to capture the psychological depths, torturing images of human existence in his portraits, while in these two studies for a self-portrait we also find a kind of extravagance that makes this work almost unique in production of the artist. Here we see an elated Francis Bacon on the cusp of his career retrospective at the Grand Palais in 1971 (Bacon was only the second living artist, after Picasso), and grappling with his relationship with George Dyer, whose suicide a year later tormented Bacon ( and his art) for decades to come.
Little known to the public eye, this work has only been exhibited twice before – first at the Grand Palais in 1971 and then more recently at the Marlborough Fine Art Small Portrait Studies exhibition in 1993. Confirming the particularity of Two Studies for a Self- Portrait (1970), is also that this painting is the cover of the book: Francis Bacon: Portraits and Self-Portrait by Milan Kundera.
A masterpiece of self-analysis, with dramatic brushstrokes by Bacon, as in an impressionist palette.
Bacon created only two other self-portraits in this dual format. One of them, Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (1977) sold at Sotheby's in February 2015 for £14,7 million ($22,4 million).
2016 will be a special year for Bacon, with exhibitions of his work planned at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco (sponsored by Sotheby's), the Tate Liverpool, and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The most significant publication on the artist, Francis Bacon: Catalog Raisonné, edited by Martin Harrison, is set to be presented in the coming months and is expected to reveal no fewer than 100 unpublished works by the artist.
