Images of charisma: Francis Bacon's portraits

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is one of the best-known figurative painters of the 20th century. His portraits, which transcend traditional portraiture, make up a significant part of his oeuvre. With over 50 representative works, the National Portrait Gallery in London traces the development of Bacon's portraits in the exhibition Francis Bacon: Human Presence. In the 1940s, the painter created his disturbing images of powerful men, which are also described as »screaming portraits«. In the 1950s, Bacon painted with models for the first time, mainly friends. This was followed by increasingly sombre self-portraits in which he focused on his grief and loneliness, especially after private strokes of fate such as the loss of two partners. Bacon's paintings are accompanied by rare photographs by famous photographers such as Cecil Beaton and Bill Brandt, who photographed the artist. The exhibition runs from October 10, 2024 to January 19, 2025.

Bacon's aim was to capture the charisma of a person, not their outward appearance. This view of the person portrayed is highly subjective; Bacon allowed his own feelings about the person to flow into the work. The pictures are overlays of many different, sometimes contradictory feelings and represent the complexity of a person's identity. In the 1970s, at the height of his career, Bacon was regarded as Britain's greatest living painter.