ANALYTICAL REVIEW OF FRANCIS BACONS WORK

Francis Bacon was born in Ireland and was a figurative painter known mostly for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon established himself as a furniture designer and interior designer. Bacons first works with oils were presented in his studio along with furniture and rugs.

In 1935 Bacon purchased a second-hand book of ‘diseases of the mouth’ which contained high quality hand-coloured plates of both open mouths and oral interiors, which haunted and obsessed him for the remainder of his life. References to this book can be seen in some of Bacons work where faces, heads and shapes are simply constructed around a more focused, detailed mouth. Bacons work was also influenced by film, a scene of a nurse screaming later became a main theme in some of his paintings, combined with the imagery in his medical book.

Bacon normally based his portraits on photographs, Bacon is said to be able to capture a remarkable likeness. Instead of covering faces with mass amounts of flesh, he used large sweeps and brush strokes in order to ‘excavate’ large areas of cheekbone and forehead, and often filling in other areas with just a single stroke of the brush to create a nose or a chin

“In his mature style, developed in the 1950's, the paintings include images of either friends or lovers, or images of people found in movie stills, reproductions of historic paintings and medical photos. His people scream in physical and psychic pain, seemingly tortured in bedrooms, bathrooms and cages. His work was always expressionist in style with distorted human and animal forms, potent images of corrupt and disgusting humanity.”

Bacons 1944 piece  “Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion” was completed within two weeks and is oil and pastel on board. It is based on Greek mythology and depicts three creatures set against a harsh orange background.

The work of Francis Bacon is much more neutral than that of Jenny Saville, and is much easier on the eye and avoids controversy. Although Bacons work can be seen as abstract or strange, the intention of his paintings is clear and well-thought. Bacons unique style of being able to construct a face with just a few brush strokes is what makes him stand out from the rest of the famous life artists.