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Historical Artist - Francis Bacon (1909 - 1992)
Francis Bacon was born in Dublin to English parents. In 1924, he left Ireland to travel across
Europe, encountering a Picasso exhibit in Paris, which was his original inspiration to begin
painting. Bacon worked as a furniture designer in London for some time before joining the Civil
Defense during World War II. His first successful painting, Three Studies for Figures at the
Base of a Crucifixion, received enthusiastic reviews in 1945. After spending five years in Monte
Carlo to gamble, Bacon returned to London to continue painting as his reputation was growing.
His paintings normally depicted disturbing themes of pain, solitude, and vulnerability.
Bacon's artwork is known for its bold, austere, homoerotic and often violent or nightmarish
imagery, which typically shows room-bound masculine figures isolated in glass or steel
geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds. Bacon had begun painting by his
early 20s. Margaret Thatcher famously described him as "that man who paints those dreadful
pictures".
Contemporary United Kingdom Artists
Art Galleries in the United Kingdom
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