Description

Francis Bacon – Study of a Human Body after Ingres

Francis Bacon’s ‘Study of the Human Body from a Drawing by Ingres’, from 1984, exemplifies Bacon’s ongoing interest in understanding and exploring human anatomy.

Bacon had a lifelong fascination with Ingres, and he often used the French Neo-Classical artist as an inspiration for his works, e.g. the theme of Oedipus and the Sphinx, of which Ingres had made paintings now displayed at the National Gallery in London and at the Louvre.

Like Ingres, Bacon champions geometrical harmony and archaism, as both these characteristics contribute to a synthesis of the ideal human figure.

Francis Bacon was an Irish-born English figurative painter known for his raw, unsettling imagery. Focusing on the human form, his subjects included crucifixions, portraits of popes, self-portraits, and portraits of close friends, with abstracted figures sometimes isolated in geometrical structures.

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