Francis Bacon
Image Size: 65.2 x 48.6 cms
The left hand panel depicts President Woodrow Wilson (Orozco 51). The prototype was an old press cutting.
The Central panel is a portrait of John Edwards - The artists long term lover and muse. Supplyed with this is a certificate of authenticity from the Publisher,
The right hand panel is after a photograph of Trotskys Study in Mexico taken after his murder. Bacon depicts the desk belonging to the assassinated Russian political figure, Trotsky. Murdered with an icepick in Mexico by a Spanish-born Soviet agent acting on Stalin's orders, Trotsky's body is draped in a bloodstained shroud. Although alluding to the violence of the act—eyewitnesses attested to Trotsky grappling with the assassin and even spitting in his face—the portrayal of the desk also alludes to the legacy of work that a great man leaves behind. When Bacon made this signed limited edition he was just five years before his own death, and clearly in contemplative mood.
