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Creator:
Francis Bacon, 1909–1992
Title:
Study of a Head
Date:
1952
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
19 1/2 × 15 1/2 inches (49.5 × 39.4 cm), Frame: 26 3/4 × 22 3/4 × 2 3/4 inches (67.9 × 57.8 × 7 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Beekman C. and Margaret H. Cannon
Copyright Status:
© Estate of the Artist
Accession Number:
B1998.27
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1998.27FR
Subject Terms:
abstract art | anxiety | brushstrokes | dark | distortion | Expressionist | faces | figure study | head | pope | screaming | study (visual work)
Access:
Not on view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1566
Export:
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IIIF Manifest:
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One of the great figurative painters of the twentieth century, the Irish-born Francis Bacon preferred to work from photographs or memories than from live models, often drawing together elements of several figures in one image. The multiple sources for this particular study include Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (an image to which Bacon returned frequently in the early 1950s), stills of a screaming woman from Sergei Eisenstein’s film Battleship Potemkin from 1925, and a book the artist owned on the diseases of the mouth. Bacon noted that he had "always been very moved by the movements of the mouth and the shape of the mouth and the teeth," speaking of his desire to "paint the mouth like Monet painted a sunset."

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2020


One of the great figurative painters of the twentieth century, the Irish-born Francis Bacon preferred to work from photographs or memories than from live models, often drawing together elements of several figures in one image. The multiple sources for this particular study include Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (an image to which Bacon returned frequently in the early 1950s), stills of a screaming woman from Sergei Eisenstein’s film Battleship Potemkin from 1925, and a book the artist owned on the diseases of the mouth. Bacon noted that he had “always been very moved by the movements of the mouth and the shape of the mouth and the teeth,” speaking of his desire to “paint the mouth like Monet painted a sunset.”

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

Francis Bacon: The Beauty of Meat (Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, 2024-03-22 - 2024-07-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

In a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-03-24 - 2023-12-03) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Francis Bacon and the Masters: A Collaboration between the State Hermitage Museum and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, 2015-04-18 - 2015-07-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Bacon and the Masters: A Collaboration between the State Hermitage Museum and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (The State Hermitage Museum, 2014-12-06 - 2015-03-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Bacon [Japan 2013] (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, 2013-06-04 - 2013-09-01) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Bacon [Japan 2013] (The National Museum of Modern Art, 2013-03-08 - 2013-05-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Bacon - Paintings From The 1950s (Milwaukee Art Museum, 2007-01-29 - 2007-04-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Bacon - Paintings From The 1950s (Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, 2006-10-01 - 2006-12-10) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Bacon - Portraits and Heads (Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2005-10-06 - 2006-01-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Bacon - Portraits and Heads (National Galleries of Scotland, 2005-06-04 - 2005-09-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Bacon (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 2003-10-15 - 2004-01-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Revisiting Traditions [BAC 20th century painting & sculpture] (Yale Center for British Art, 2002-04-30 - 2005-05-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Bacon 2000 Exhibition (Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, 2000-06-01 - 2000-08-31) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Bacon : A Retrospective Exhibition (The Museum of Modern Art of Fort Worth, 1999-08-20 - 1999-10-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Francis Bacon : A Retrospective Exhibition (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1999-06-13 - 1999-08-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Francis Bacon : A Retrospective Exhibition (Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1999-04-08 - 1999-05-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Francis Bacon : A Retrospective Exhibition (Yale Center for British Art, 1999-01-25 - 1999-03-21) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Eight Figurative Painters (Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1982-01-29 - 1982-03-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Eight Figurative Painters (Yale Center for British Art, 1981-10-14 - 1982-01-03) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Dalya Alberge, Hockney? He's such rubbish, Bacon said, The Times (London), Monday, January 30, 2006, p. 27, The Times Digital Archive [ORBIS]

Kenneth Baker, Bacon's paintings' edge dulled with age--but his technique retains power in retrospective, San Francisco Chronicle, June 11, 1999, p. C3, Access World News--Historical and Current : San Francisco Chronicle [ORBIS]

Kenneth Baker, Brown on Bacon : a Young Artist Confronts his Influences in Englishman's Brutal Paintings, San Francisco Chronicle, July 4, 1999, p. 30, Access World News--Historical and Current : San Francisco Chronicle [ORBIS]

Myriam Boutoulle, Bacon, la Fascination Picassienne, Connaissance des Arts, , March 2005, p. 24, J10 C761 (SML) [ORBIS]

Johan Callens, Anne-Marie Boisvert, Manon Oligny, and Thomas Israël : Three Artists in Search of Cindy Sherman, , TDR, vol. 54, Spring (March) 2010, pp. 53, 55, fig. 13, JSTOR [ORBIS]

Eight figurative painters, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1981, pp. 52, 54, no. 18, ND468.5 F5 E55 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Dennis Farr, Francis Bacon : a retrospective, , The Trust for Museum Exhibitions, New York, 1999, pp. 74-75, no. 12, NJ18 B13 F28 1999 (YCBA) [YCBA]

William Feaver, The Greatest Living Painter, ART News, v. 84, September 1985, pp. 123-125, N1 A6 OVERSIZE (HAAS) [ORBIS]

Andrew Forge, Bacon: The Paint of Screams, ART News, v. 62, October 1963, pp. 38-41, N1 .A6 OVERSIZE (HAAS) [ORBIS]

Francis Bacon : ( exhibition ), , Nikkei, Inc., Tokyo, 2013, pp. 36-37, 184, no. 8, unnumbered plate, NJ18.B13 A12 2013 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Francis Bacon : die Portraits : Hamburger Kunsthalle, [14. Oktober 2005 bis 15. Januar 2006], , Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2005, pp. 40-42, fig. 7, NJ18 .B13 A12 2005B (YCBA) [YCBA]

Francis Bacon : lo sagrado y lo profano, , Generalitat Valenciana IVAM, Valencia, 2003, p. 19, NJ18 B13 A12 2003B + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Francis Bacon and the masters, Fontanka Publications, London, 2015, p. 198, Cat. 44, Pl. 12, NJ18.B13 F7452 2015 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Francis Bacon in Dublin, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Dublin, 2000, pp. 52, 55, 123, no. 17, NJ18 .B13 S975 2000 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Erin Keever, Painter's Work Piques Morbid Curiosity, Austin-American Statesman, October 2, 1999, p. D6, Gale OneFile : News [ORBIS]

Kenneth J. Larsen, Reader Offended by Artwork of "Screaming Pope", Washington Times, March 9, 1999, p. A16, Access World News--Historical and Current : Washington Times [ORBIS]

Martin Harrison, Francis Bacon : catalogue raisonne´, Estate of Francis Bacon, London, 2016, vol. 2, pp. 262, 263, cat. no. 52-05, col. pl p. 263, NJ18.B13 A12 2016 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Jean Nowak, Yale's Large Collection of Art Earns High Marks, Washington Times, March 7, 1999, p. E1, Access World News--Historical and Current : Washington Times [ORBIS]

Michael Peppiatt, Francis Bacon : studies for a portrait : essays and interviews, , Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., London, 2008, pp. 104-105, 112, NJ18 .B13 P473 2008 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Michael Peppiatt, Francis Bacon in the 1950s, Yale University Press, Norwich, UK and New Haven, 2006, p. 69, no. 1, NJ18 .B13 P472 2006 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Portraits and heads, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2005, pp. 29, 33, no. 5, NJ18 .B13 A12 2005 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Wilfried Seipel, Francis Bacon and the tradition of art, Skira editore, Milano; New York, 2003, pp. 148, 153, no. 28, NJ18 .B13 F75 2003 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Jackie Wullschlager, Birth of the genius that is Bacon, Financial Times, September 22, 2006, p. 13, Financial Times Historial Archive [ORBIS]

William Zimmer, Bacon is the Star of Yale Reopening, New York Times, February 28, 1999, p. CT14, ProQuest Historical Newspapers : New York Times [ORBIS]


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