Painting

Painting (1946) is an oil-on-linen painting by the Irish-born artist Francis Bacon. It was originally to depict a chimpanzee in long grass (parts of which may be still visible); Bacon then attempted to paint a bird of prey landing in a field. Bacon described the work as his most unconscious, the figurations forming without his intention. In an interview with David Sylvester in 1962, Bacon recalls: Graham Sutherland saw Painting (1946) in the Crom... more

Painting (1946) is an oil-on-linen painting by the Irish-born artist Francis Bacon. It was originally to depict a chimpanzee in long grass (parts of which may be still visible); Bacon then attempted to paint a bird of prey landing in a field. Bacon described the work as his most unconscious, the figurations forming without his intention. In an interview with David Sylvester in 1962, Bacon recalls: Graham Sutherland saw Painting (1946) in the Cromwell Place studio, and urged his dealer, Erica Brausen, then of the Redfern gallery, to go to see the painting and to buy it. Brausen wrote to Bacon several times, and visited his studio in early autumn 1946, promptly buying the work for £200. (It was shown in several group showings, including the British section of Exposition internationale d'arte moderne (18 November – 28 December 1946) at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, for which Bacon travelled to Paris.) Within a fortnight of the sale of Painting (1946) to the Hanover gallery, Bacon had... less