Francis Bacon, Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer
Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer sold for $51,767,500.
The Books.
Published to coincide with the sale of Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer, this four volume boxed set is a wholistic examination of the mind, eyes and hand of the enigmatic London painter. Beginning with a Master Volume that takes an overarching look at Bacon’s first triptych of his chief muse and great love, George Dyer, the series begins with a foreword by Brett Gorvy and former director of the Maeght Foundation, Jean-Louis Prat, as well as original texts devoted to the principal painting and its provenance. The Master Volume concludes with an original interview between Robert Brown and Michael Peppiatt, friend and scholar to the artist.
The First Volume in the set, The Mind of Francis Bacon, delves into the psyche of the artist, with original texts Risk and Risqué: Francis Bacon in Sixties London by William Paton and From Destruction to Transformation: The Portraits of Francis Bacon by Stephen Jones. Exploring Bacon’s unique way of seeing, the Second Volume is titled The Eye of Francis Bacon. This volume features original texts A Disrupted Nobility by Bacon authority Martin Harrison, and The Slight Remove from Fact: Francis Bacon and the Assault of Images by Candace Wetmore. The third and final volume, The Hand of Francis Bacon, examines the artist’s idiosyncratic painterly style. This volume includes an original essay by curator, Jill Lloyd, titled Reflections on Francis Bacon and Expressionism, as well as With “the Gods on his Side:” Francis Bacon and the “Mystery” of Painting by Robert Brown. Punctuated throughout each of the volumes are archival texts by French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze.
Publisher: Christie’s Inc., May 2017
Kent Albin, Design // Robert Brown, Anna Campbell, Faith Chisholm, Martin Harrison, Stephen Jones, Jill Lloyd, William Paton, Candace Wetmore, Text // Original Interview with Robert Brown and Michael Peppiatt // Archival Texts by Gilles Deleuze
“I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail, leaving a trail of the human presence and memory trace of past events, as the snail leaves its slime.”
— Francis Bacon