Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

List of large triptychs by Francis Bacon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of large triptychs by Francis Bacon
Remove ads

The Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon (1909–1992) painted 28 known large triptychs between 1944 and 1985–86.[1] He began working in the format in the mid-1940s with a number of smaller scale works before graduating to large examples in 1962. He followed the larger style for 30 years, although he painted a number of smaller scale triptychs of friend's heads, and after the death of his former lover George Dyer in 1971, the three acclaimed "Black Triptychs".

Thumb
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, C 1944. 94 cm x 74 cm (ea), Tate Britain, London. This work was the first painting Bacon was happy with and was an instant critical success. The themes it explores reoccur and are re-examined in many of his later panels and triptychs.

Bacon was a highly mannered artist and often became preoccupied with forms, themes, images and modes of expression that he would rework for sustained periods, often for six or seven-year periods. When asked about his tendency for sequential or repetitive paintings, he explained how, in his mind, images revealed themselves "in series. And I suppose I could go long beyond the triptych and do five or six together, but I find the triptych is a more balanced unit."[2]

He told critics that his usual practice with triptychs was to begin with the left panel and work across. Typically he completed each frame before beginning the next. As the work as a whole progressed, he would sometimes return to an earlier panel to make revisions, though this practice was generally carried out late in the overall work's completion.

Remove ads

List of large triptychs

More information Details ...
Remove ads

See also

References

Bibliography

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads