Francis Bacon Biography

Francis Bacon is a self-taught Irish-British painter known for raw imagery often focusing on the human form and portraiture. His dreamlike work is infused with references to poetry and drama and has been described as ‘ferocious meditations on human anguish and savagery.’

Having spent the late 1920’s and early 1930’s enjoying life as a bon vivant, floating between London, Berlin and Paris, Bacon returned to Soho. It was here that, inspired by the work of Picasso, Bacon began producing the art that would go on to secure his reputation as one of the most important painters of the twentieth century.  

His 1944 triptych, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, was described as a ‘turning point in the history of British art’.