The first of seven small self-portraits that Bacon produced in 1972, Self Portrait with Injured Eye (1972) is a compelling example of autobiographical work. It was painted at a time of personal loss and vulnerability for Bacon, just a few months after the death of his partner George Dyer.
As Martin Harrison notes in the Catalogue Raisonné, Bacon painted a diptych and a triptych in this format as well as a large self-portrait;
Thus ten of his fifteen completed works in 1972 were self-portraits, by far the highest percentage for a single year in his oeuvre.
Excerpt: Martin Harrison, Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné (London: The Estate of Francis Bacon Publishing, 2016 p. 998).
This particular self-portrait expresses a sense of solitude and melancholy, not least through the violence of the injured eye itself, which acts as a cipher for the destruction present in Bacon’s life at the time. As Harrison writes;
Bacon reputedly suffered many beatings, which as a masochist he may not have found entirely uncongenial. If it did not document a specific incident, the injured eye in this painting stands as an autobiographical symbol.
Excerpt: Martin Harrison, Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné (London: The Estate of Francis Bacon Publishing, 2016 p. 998).
When discussing self-portraiture with art critic and friend David Sylvester in 1975, Bacon hinted that his personal losses were the reason for this shift in portraiture, telling him;
'I’ve done a lot of self-portraits, really because people have been dying around me like flies and I’ve had nobody else to paint but myself.’
Excerpt: David Sylvester, Looking Back at Francis Bacon, 2000, Thames and Hudson, London.
Self Portrait with Injured Eye (1972) is currently being exhibited at the Centro Botín gallery in Santander, under the title of Portraits: Essence and Expression. The exhibition houses 20th century masterpieces from the Jaime Botín art collection, including works by Henri Matisse, Pancho Cossío and Juan Gris alongside the Francis Bacon painting – the former artist being a source of inspiration and admiration for Bacon.
Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné can be purchased through our distributor’s website
 is a compelling example of autobiographical work. It was painted at a time of personal loss and vulnerability for Bacon, just a few months after the death of his partner George Dyer. )