Francis Bacon

Diana Watson, London (acquired directly from the artist)
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 20 June 1962, Lot 199
Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London
Marlborough Fine Art, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum; Basel, Fondation Beyeler, Francis Bacon and the Tradition of Art, 2003, p. 170, no. 44, illustrated in colour and pp. 70 & 162, detail illustrated in colour
Paris, Réunion des Musées Nationaux; Paris, Musée Picasso, Bacon, Picasso, 2005, p. 126, no. 116, illustrated in colour

Ronald Alley, Francis Bacon, London 1964, p. 32, no. 13, illustrated
Hugh M. Davies, Francis Bacon: The Early and Middle Years, 1928-1958, New York 1978, no. 22, illustrated
Martin Harrison, In Camera: Francis Bacon, Photography, Film and the Practice of Painting, London 2005, p. 35, no. 34, illustrated in colour
Exhibition Catalogue, Düsseldorf, K20 Kunstsammlung, Francis Bacon. The Violence of the Real, 2006-07, p. 30, fig. 2, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the floor has slightly more pink tones throughout in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. The sheet is mounted to a sheet of thickly wove paper. There are light handling creases to the top corners. There are several scattered scratches, inherent to the artist's working process. There are two very small paper losses along the lower right edge in the lower right corner and towards the right edge of the easel and a few nicks scattered along the top and centre left edge, visible in the catalogue illustration.
"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."

Executed when Francis Bacon was in just his mid twenties, Studio Interior provides an exceptionally rare insight to a deeply mysterious era of his oeuvre. Very little is known of Bacon's work from these formative years, the artist having infamously destroyed much of his output later in his career. Studio Interior thus reveals the earliest developments of this master's inimitable aesthetic dialect, which would subsequently go on to astound the art world for most of the Twentieth Century. 

 

Ronald Alley has described how "The object on a pedestal in the background already foreshadows the Three Studies at the Base of a Crucifixion of 1944" (Ronald Alley, Francis Bacon, London 1964, p. 32), and this work is certainly seminal to the genesis of that groundbreaking masterpiece. Additionally, in the shape of this central surrealistic figure the work reveals the significant influence of Picasso, whose work Bacon had first encountered in 1928 at the Paul Rosenberg Gallery in Paris. Having spent his first years in London designing avant-garde furniture, this work contributed to the seismic shift when Bacon resolved to devote his life to depicting the human condition through art.