Unseen Francis Bacon self-portraits go on show for first time in London and New York
The paintings, which were rediscovered in a private collection, will be auctioned off by Sotheby's
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Your support makes all the difference.Two rediscovered Francis Bacon self-portraits are to go on display for the first time.
The paintings, which resurfaced in a private collection almost 40 years after they were completed, will be on display at Sotheby’s in London and New York before being auctioned in July.
Experts knew of the existence of the works, but had no idea who had bought the paintings after Bacon finished them.
The self-portraits, entitled Self-Portrait (1975) and Three Studies for Self-Portrait (1980), are expected to sell for £15m each at auction.
The triptych Three Studies for Self-Portrait shows the artist - who was then in his seventies and becoming increasingly haunted by the inevitability of death - with his eyes downcast.
Self-Portrait was painted at the height of Bacon's career, in the period following the suicide of his former lover George Dyer in 1971.
Bacon painted the 1975 self-portrait when he was in his sixties but looked much younger in the work. Obsessed with his physical appearance, he dyed his hair and wore make-up as he grew older.
Oliver Barker, Sotheby's senior international specialist in contemporary art, said that the artist deliberately gave himself “film star-style looks, appearing as photogenic as possible while still being highly self-critical”.
He said that the triptych had a “filmic quality” and showed the artist's “level of psychological angst and questioning”.
A Bacon painting, featuring his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud, became the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction when it fetched $142m (£89m) in New York in 2013.
With additional reporting from the Press Association.
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