Lot 2042 email save

Francis Bacon, Study of a Dog at Rest, oil on can

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Francis Bacon, Study of a Dog at Rest, oil on canvas, on a green background, 14" x 12". Given Bacon's way of producing finished paintings, this would appear to be a painting in preliminary form with the outline of the dog showing clearly on the canvas. This would not seem to be a completed painting but Bacon frequently discarded canvases, returning to them at a later date, perhaps in this case this was one to which he meant to return but did not do so. His method of working from a background to a shape or form and on to a finished work is illustrated by this and the two following lots which appear to be in varying stages of completion from basic outline onwards.
Dogs and other animals were often subjects for Bacon. Animals made an appearance in Bacon's work as early as "Figures in a garden 1936," although they appear less often in the last two decades of his life. The animals he painted most were dogs and primates, the greater number of works dating the 1950s. "Dog 1952" is in the Tate, "Man and Dog" is in the Albright Knox Gallery, New York and "Study for a running dog c 1954" is in The National Gallery of Art Washington.
With very few exceptions Bacon is said to have painted always in portrait rather than landscape format and we are illustrating these in portrait format although they could equally be orientated in a landscape format.
Provenance: The Robertson Collection

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