{"id":12216,"date":"2021-09-11T13:02:31","date_gmt":"2021-09-11T19:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/?p=12216"},"modified":"2022-10-05T10:53:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T16:53:11","slug":"a-small-list-of-great-artists-36-francis-bacon-irish-born-1909-1992","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/archives\/12216","title":{"rendered":"Francis Bacon’s Popes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(see Francis Bac<\/strong>on<\/a><\/strong>)<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Extra special thank you to the official Francis Bacon website, http:\/\/www.francis-bacon.com\/<\/a> – an absolutly stupendous resource full of great and fascinating information, as well as a place to enjoy such an enormous selection of artwork! Please check it out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always enjoyed drawing, but I didn’t really ever go to museums as a kid, or have art books lying around; my first real experiences with museum artwork weren’t really until college, buying art history textbooks, and seeing slides in class. Francis Bacon’s Study After V\u00e9l\u00e1zquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X<\/em> (1953) was one of the first pieces that was taught in one of my earliest classes, that really caught my attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to everything else we studied, there was such a darkness and horror portrayed in the image, which really spoke to my interests at that time and place in my life (and still does!). The screaming, anguished Pope could be getting electrocuted in an electric chair. Little did I know Bacon had created this enormous body of work, beginning to expore this theme as early as 1946, and continuing to work at it for twenty years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preparing for my Brush with Peril<\/a><\/em> comic, it was exhilarating to realize how many of these paintings he’d produced (around 50 of them), and fascinating to learn that he destroyed his paintings whenever they didn’t meet his standards. These pieces remain one of my favorite series of museum art ever produced, even though Bacon in his later life confessed that he found the pieces silly and wished he’d never made them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks like some of his pope paintings were specifically labeled a “screaming pope” series (nice little article about them at francisbacon.com<\/a>), but not others (perhaps they’re simply “grumbling popes,” or “writhing-in-agony-but-not-screaming popes,” or “irritated popes,” or “unpleasant popes.”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below I’ve included anything that basically looked pope-like to me, for comparison\/similarity purposes. Notice the use of confinement-looking geometrical forms enclosing the pope or figure, as well as curtains that could be bars of a prison or cage, and thrones that could be bedposts or electric chairs. Notice the palette changing over the years, from bluish purples and golds, to greens and purples, to reds and purples, to reds and beiges. Notice the occasional inclusion of slabs of meat, or owls, and one monkey. Many of these objects, and many compositions like these below, pop up in other non-Pope pieces by Bacon. Notice the dramatic shift in his style of portraying a disturbing monsterish or ghoulish human anatomy, into more distorted, more-imaginary-less-photo-referenced-looking swollen or skeletal figures and faces around 1957-58, and then by 1959, he goes all in with this “cartoonish” blobby fleshy change in look, accentuated with his new color palette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Head VI<\/em><\/a> (1949), Arts Council Collection<\/a>, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon, Head<\/em> (1949), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study after Vel\u00e1zquez<\/em> (1950), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study after Vel\u00e1zquez<\/em> (1950), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope III<\/em><\/a> (1951), destroyed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope I – Study after Pope Innocent X by Velazquez <\/em>(1951) Aberdeen Art Gallery<\/a>, Scotland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope II <\/em>(1951), Kunsthalle Mannheim<\/a>, Germany<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Head<\/em> (1951), The Cleveland Museum of Art<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Portrait<\/em> (1952), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study of a Head<\/em> (1952), Yale Center for British Art<\/a>, New Haven<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Portrait (1952), Tate Modern<\/a>, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Head<\/em> (1952), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Head (1952), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Sphinx<\/em> (1953), Toyota Municipal Museum of Art<\/a>, Japan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait I<\/em> (1953), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait II<\/em> <\/a>(1953), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait III<\/em><\/a> (1953), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait IV<\/em> (1953), The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait V<\/em> (1953), Hirshhorn Museum<\/a>, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait VI<\/em> (1953), Minneapolis Institute of Arts<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait VII<\/em><\/a> (1953) Museum of Modern Art<\/a>, New York City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait VIII<\/em> (1953), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study After V\u00e9l\u00e1zquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X<\/a> (1953), Des Moines Art Cent<\/a>er<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Figure With Meat<\/em> (1954), Art Institute of Chicago<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope <\/em>(1954), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope<\/em> (1954), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Figure Seated (the Cardinal)<\/em> <\/a>(1955), The Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art<\/a>, Ghent<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Man with a Head Wound<\/em> (1955), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Head<\/em> (1955), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Small Study for Portrait<\/em><\/a> (1955), destroyed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Head with Raised Arm<\/em> (1955), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Pope<\/em><\/a> (1955), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait I <\/em> (1956), The National Gallery of Canada<\/a>, Ottawa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait II<\/em><\/a> (1956), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait<\/em> (1957), Museum fu\u0308r Gegenwartskunst Siegen<\/a>, Germany<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope<\/em> (circa 1958), Brooklyn Museum<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope<\/em> (circa 1958), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope with Owls<\/em> (1958), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope with Owls<\/em> (1958), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study from Portrait of Pope Innocent X (By Velazquez)<\/em> (1959), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope No. 2<\/em> (1960), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope No. <\/em>3 (1960), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Head<\/em> (1960), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Pope and Chimpanzee<\/em> (1960), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Seated Figure<\/em> (1960), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Pope I<\/em> (1961), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Pope II<\/em> (1961), Vatican Museums<\/a>, Rome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Pope III<\/em> (1961), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Pope IV<\/em> (1961), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Pope IV<\/em> (1961), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for a Pope VI<\/em> (1961), Yageo Foundation<\/a>, Taipei<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study from Innocent X<\/em> (1962), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study of Red Pope, second version<\/em> (1962), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait (with Two Owls)<\/em> (1963), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study from a Portrait of Pope Innocent X<\/em> (1965), private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bacon didn’t paint from life, he prefered to work from photographs, movie stills, and he even studied dental text books to get those horrifying mouths. His Pope paintings were inspired by these two below images (the first, the piece he sought for his work to “triumph over;” the second, he called “a catalyst” for his work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Diego Vel\u00e1zquez, Portrait of Pope Innocent X<\/em> (1650), Galleria Doria Pamphilj<\/a>, Rome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
still from the film, Battleship Potemkin<\/em> ( 1925), directed by Sergei Eisentstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1989, it looks like Francis Bacon’s Figure With Meat<\/em> (1954) left its home at the Art Institute of Chicago<\/a> to go on tour for an exhibit in Gotham City:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I wrote a review of the exhibit here.<\/a> Jack Nicholson, as the Joker in Tim Burton’s film, Batman<\/em> (1989), breaks into The Fluggelheim Museum with a gaggle of thugs, who deface one work of art after another. As one of his thugs brandishes a knife to slash at Francis Bacon’s Figure With Meat<\/em> (1954), the Joker blocks the lunge and says, “Whoa! I kinda like this one, Bob. Leave it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Chris with Francis Bacon<\/a>, Figure With Meat<\/em> (1954), Art Institute of Chicago<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Chris with Francis Bacon<\/a>, Study for Portrait (with Two Owls)<\/em> (1963), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n

Read the comic book, “Brush with Peril”:<\/strong><\/em>
\"\"<\/a>
\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>
BACK TO MASTER LIST<\/b><\/a>
Small List of Great Artists<\/a>
Small List of Museums<\/a>
<\/strong><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(see Francis Bacon) Extra special thank you to the official Francis Bacon website, http:\/\/www.francis-bacon.com\/ – an absolutly stupendous resource full of great and fascinating information, as well as a place to enjoy such an enormous selection of artwork! Please check it out! I always enjoyed drawing, but I didn’t really ever go to museums as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brush-with-peril"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/archives\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":7,"uagb_excerpt":"(see Francis Bacon) Extra special thank you to the official Francis Bacon website, http:\/\/www.francis-bacon.com\/ – an absolutly stupendous resource full of great and fascinating information, as well as a place to enjoy such an enormous selection of artwork! Please check it out! I always enjoyed drawing, but I didn’t really ever go to museums as…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12216"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14782,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12216\/revisions\/14782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}