Lot 2034 email save

Francis Bacon, mutilated canvas, sketch for a por

Sign In to see what this sold for

Francis Bacon, mutilated canvas, oil sketch for a portrait, on a dark green ground, 14" x 12", with the face crudely cut out leaving only a small part of the top head and of the neck. Bacon was well known for destroying paintings and in one of the David Sylvester interviews in the 1970s he explained that he tended to destroy the better paintings because he took them further and, in doing so, lost all their qualities. It is said that after his death approximately one hundred destroyed canvases were found in his Studio and about half of these were the same size as the four in this sale. In every case the head area of the portrait has been cut out making it impossible to identify the sitters. This portrait almost certainly dates from the 1970s.
Provenance: The Robertson Collection

View Ewbank Auctioneers next auction.

Similar lots up for auction