Francis Bacon

Acquired from the artist in 1951
Thence by descent to the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is deeper, softer and cooler in the original, with cherry tones along the extreme lower edge and the central band tending more towards a yellow in the original. Condition: This work is in good condition. There is faint wear and scattered patches of splitting to the board along all four edges with several spots of associated paint loss, particularly to the upper left and lower right hand corners and the upper left extreme edge. There is a very faint line of media accretions along the central vertical axis of the composition, visible in the catalogue illustration. Upon close inspection there are several very small matrices of faint and stable craquelure, particularly to the centre and lower right hand corner of the composition. There are some extremely faint handling marks to the centre of the top edge and several minute spots of further media accretion throughout. There are several tiny spots of paint loss throughout, only visible upon close inspection. Examination under ultra violet light reveals four spots of retouching: one to the top left hand corner on the exposed area of fibreboard; one top the extreme top left hand edge; one to the left of the centre of the extreme lower edge and further spot to the right of centre on the extreme lower edge.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed by the Francis Bacon Authentication Committee, and it will be included in the forthcoming Francis Bacon Catalogue Raisonné currently being prepared by Martin Harrison

The re-appearance of Untitled (Landscape) is hugely important to enriching our inadequate understanding of Francis Bacon's early career and oeuvre. Circa dated at 1943 by the Francis Bacon Authentication Committee, it is quite possibly the only painting from that year to have survived the artist's aggressively self-imposed quality control; a process that saw him destroying the majority of his work before it ever reached completion. Painted during the height of the Second World War, devoid of human presence, this image affords a sombre vision of life in London during the Blitz and evokes a sense of the terror civilians felt as they fled for cover in the Underground. The composition is divided into diagonal bands of greys and ochres that fall away into the distance, creating a stage-like effect that Bacon was to reuse in several later works including the Studies of Dogs he painted in 1953-54.

 

The powerful recession into space this diagonal composition creates enhances the ambiguity of the subject depicted. This actively encourages several possible interpretations, ranging from a street scene to the rush of a passing Underground train. However one views the format of the image, this painting captures and enshrines the pulsation of life at this time of fraught uncertainty. It embodies what Bacon viewed as the crux of the challenge: to convey the sensation of life, what he termed "fact" - in a non-illustrative way. Straight forward representational verisimilitude, or "illustration", was as abhorrent to him as it was to his abstractionist peers. His painting had to transcend mere representation to expose something more brutal, vital and irrational: "The living quality is what you have to get." (Francis Bacon cited in: David Sylvester, Looking back at Francis Bacon, London 2000, p. 98)

 

Bacon painted very few landscapes during his career and this work can be seen to have directly influenced several of his subsequent ventures into the genre. The brushwork of the green and violet strips of grass in the foreground, for example, is particularly distinctive, and reappears in many of his most celebrated works from the early 1950s including Man Kneeling in Grass, (1952), Study of Figure in a Landscape, (1952), now in The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C., and Study of a Baboon, (1953), now in The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Similarly the freedom of the bold, black brushwork found in the upper section of the composition begs comparison with the Tate's iconic Figure in a Landscape, (1945), and can be seen to have paved the way for the artist's increasingly fluid approach to painting found in his later work.