Francis Bacon: “Study for Innocent X”
1962
Image courtesy of Sotheby’s
SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK TO OFFER A MASTERPIECE BY FRANCIS BACON, STUDY FROM INNOCENT X, ON MAY 15, 2007
New York, New York – On May 15, 2007, Sotheby’s New York will offer a striking masterpiece by Francis Bacon, Study from Innocent X, in its evening sale of Contemporary Art. Executed in 1962, Study from Innocent X comes from a series of paintings based on Spanish artist Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1650, the most important in Bacon’s oeuvre. Intentionally engaging with the grand tradition of the Old Masters to produce an iconic visage for our times, Bacon reinvented the public image of the Pope – arguably the most powerful man of earlier centuries – to capture the intimate pain and private psychoses of modern life. The painting, which has never before appeared at auction, is estimated to sell for in excess of $30 million*.
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Study from Innocent X, which comes from a Private Collection, was acquired by the present owner over thirty years ago. Shortly after its execution, the painting was included in the first major retrospectives of the artists’ work in Europe and the United States: the 1962-63 exhibition, Francis Bacon, comprising 91 works, which originated at the Tate Gallery, London, and traveled to Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and the 1963-64 retrospective of 65 works, also Francis Bacon, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, said: “This painting represents the ultimate Pope image by Bacon. In this work he finally and ultimately dares to face his artistic inspiration, Velázquez. It is intense, luminescent and radiant. His painterly skill is extraordinary, and the canvas possesses a Baroque energy.”
Bacon created approximately 50 canvases in the series of ‘Popes’, which includes a few early works from 1946 and 1950 which the artist subsequently destroyed. The first extant work is Head VI (1949) following through to 1965, with one final painting, Study for Red Pope, executed in 1971 and based closely on the painting offered by Sotheby’s
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Within the ‘Popes’ series, Study from Innocent X, 1962, is the painting that most directly engages the palette of the famous portrait by Velázquez, Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1650, which the artist finished during a trip to Italy around 1650 and is housed in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome. Bacon’s striking 1962 canvas is the first `Pope’ painting to evoke Velázquez’ color scheme of red velvety drapery and papal robes, in contrast to Bacon’s previous use of dark blue, somber green or black backgrounds elsewhere in the series. Study from Innocent X, is distinguished by its fiery palette of vivid orange-red and maroon red hues reminiscent of Velázquez’ much earlier work, which emanate from its dais, robes and background. While Bacon would use a brighter palette throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he had used this color scheme in only two other masterpieces of his early oeuvre: Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944, Collection of the Tate Gallery, London since 1953) and Three Studies for a Crucifixion (1962, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York). The title of Study from Innocent X is one of the few that acknowledges the intimate nature of Bacon’s inspiration as opposed to its counterparts, which Bacon more generically titled as in Pope I (1951) and Study for Portrait I (1953).
Bacon is considered one of the masters of the depiction of the human figure and face of the 20th century. Working from photographic reproductions of images such as the Velázquez and photographs of his circle of friends and contemporaries, Bacon felt that abstract art without human content was lacking in emotional resonance. Starting from photographic sources, Bacon distorted and dismembered his subject’s face or figure, often conveyed in equally vigorous impasto and violent brushstrokes.
In concert with the Velázquez — which Bacon claimed to have only seen in reproduction and in photographs — Bacon’s other source material for the ‘Pope’ paintings include a film still from Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 film The Battleship Potemkin, depicting a close-up of a nurse, injured on the Odessa steps, with open mouth, bloody face and broken glasses. This agonized image with the silent scream became a prime motif for distorted and dismembered faces throughout Bacon’s oeuvre and was employed to great effect in the Popes. In Study from Innocent X, the grimacing face contains traces of the nurse’s broken lenses, while the vigorous impasto and violent brushstrokes of both face and figure convey the anguish of human strife. Raised up on a throne and dais, Bacon’s Pope is presented as a full-length figure for the first time in the series. In the fashion of his 1960s paintings, Bacon’s main expressive tool is the densely textured and contorted figure. Sweeping his fully loaded brush in a series of brilliant and swift gestures, Bacon carves out a spirit trapped in brooding and pent-up emotion
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