Francis Bacon’s ‘Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud’ being auctioned at Sotheby’s
Bacon and Dali leads Sotheby’s sale of modern art Francis Bacon’s extremely rare triptych of Lucian Freud, sold to an anonymousbidder in the saleroom for £23,001,250 / $37,004,411 / €27,129,930, and Salvador Dalí’s ‘Portrait de Paul Eluard’, sold for £13,481,250 / $21,688,635 / €15,901,108, leads Sotheby’s £93,5 million sale]]>
February 11th, 2011, source: Sotheby’s
Tobias Meyer, tonight’s Auctioneer and Worldwide Head of Sotheby’s Contemporary ArtDepartment, commented: “Connoisseurship and a discerning eye are key to our world and drive thismarket. Tonight you saw the beautiful marriage of a great collection, put together by real connoisseurs, sellingto true collectors. I am confident the works of art from this elegant ensemble will be loved as much in their newhomes as they were in the collector’s home.”
Francis Bacon’s triptych of Lucian Freud is a testament to the friendship between these two giants oftwentieth-century painting. The work was executed at the height of Bacon’s career. Its intimate 14x12inch format is one which the artist used exclusively for portraits of his good friends. “This strikingpainting has everything a collector in the current market is looking for.” commented Cheyenne Westphal,Sotheby’s Chairman of Contemporary Art Europe. “It is an artwork that radiates ‘wall-power’ with itsbrilliant colour and dramatic brushstrokes. It narrates one of the most impressive artistic relationships of the20th Century between two titans of British Art and is desirably fresh to the market having remained in the samecollection for almost half a century.” Bacon and Freud met towards the end of the Second World War andsoon became close companions. They were at the vanguard of post war British painting and, with BenNicholson, represented Britain at the 1954 Venice Biennale. This friendship is apparent in the presentwork with the paint brushed, smeared, flicked, and thrown to create the remarkable likeness apparentin this portrait.
“The stars align in this powerful portrait, which unites two pivotal figures of the Surrealist period and ranksamong the finest Surrealist portraits ever painted. The record price it achieved reflects not only the desire andhunger for masterworks by the artist, but also the mythical status this work enjoys in Dali’s oeuvre,” saidHelena Newman, Chairman, Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Europe. The work was paintedduring the summer of 1929 spent with Eluard and his wife Gala, who became the Dalí’s legendary,life-long companion and muse. Displaying the untamed imagination and technical virtuosity of hisearly Surrealist art, this work marks a major turning point for the young artist which was to changeboth his private and artistic life. The portrait was shown at Dalí’s first exhibition which wasaccompanied by a catalogue prefaced by André Breton. The exhibition proved to be a triumph andmarked the beginning of Dalí’s public success, propelling him to the forefront of the Surrealist group.
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