Francis Bacon's Head I (1958) goes on display to the public today at Sotheby's in London. The painting will be available to view through to Thursday when Head I will be auctioned as part of Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 15 October. Head I is Bacon's portrait of his lover at the time Peter Lacy, in 1958. The painting was completed in the borrowed rooms he occupied in Overstrand Mansions in Battersea. More information on Head I is available via the lot notes on Sotheby's website. Also worth reading is Sotheby's dissection of Bacon's Head I in the article 'Passion & Power: The Anatomy of a Francis Bacon Portrait'. Here the auction house explore the possible influence of Van Gogh, John Deakin and Baron von Schrenk Notzing’s book, Phenomena of Materializations (1924)
'The simultaneous tenderness and violence of the likeness and the amazing variance of texture and treatment across the composition speak volumes of the immensely complex relationship between Bacon and Peter Lacy that charges this great work, and so many others, with passionate emotional depth.' - Sotheby's on Head I
Contemporary Art Evening Auction Sotheby's 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA UK
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