Francis Bacon: Man and Beast at the Royal Academy

Ina

Mar 25, 2022

3 min read

Updated: Oct 6

Francis Bacon: Man and Beast ran in the Main Galleries of the Royal Academy at Burlington House from 29 January to 17 April 2022. This page is a record of the show and the paintings in it.

The Royal Academy's courtyard front at Burlington House with a red banner for the Bacon exhibition above visitors at tables

Francis Bacon: Man and Beast – What Was in the Show?

The curators were Michael Peppiatt, Bacon's friend and biographer, and Sarah Lea of the Royal Academy. Press coverage put the number of paintings at around 45, spread over about 50 years of his career.

The Royal Academy built the show around Bacon's relationship with animals, and around the way his figures blur the line between human and animal. It ran roughly in date order, from early works to his last painting.

Three framed paintings on a teal gallery wall, each with a pale distorted figure against a red ground, with a visitor at the right edge

Which Paintings Were on Show?

The Royal Academy's list includes Head VI, painted in 1949, and Owls, painted in 1956. Also on it are Portrait of George Dyer Crouching, 1966, and Three Studies of the Human Body, 1970.

A screaming face in a purple robe, painted in dark browns on a gold-framed canvas

Second Version of Triptych 1944, painted in 1988, hung in the show too. The show closed with Study of a Bull, painted in 1991, which was his final painting.

A close view of one panel of a red-ground triptych, with a pale animal-like figure against the red, seen at an angle along a teal wall

Three bullfight paintings of 1969, including Study for Bullfight No. 1, were shown together for the first time. They hung in an octagonal gallery, and another room held the Furies as a triptych.

A view through an arched doorway into a gallery with three framed paintings on the far wall and two visitors in silhouette

What Were the Sources Behind the Paintings?

Coverage of the show names Eadweard Muybridge's photographs of bodies in motion, photographs of animals in his studio, and the wildlife of South Africa. The paintings turn those sources into images of violence and fear.

A dark painting in a gold frame of a pale figure fixed to a structure like a cross, with a bird shape above, hung on a dark wall

A woman seen from behind in front of three framed paintings on a teal wall

Who Was Francis Bacon?

Bacon was born in Dublin on 28 October 1909 and died in Madrid on 28 April 1992. He grew up in Ireland on a stud farm and had chronic asthma, which made contact with animals hard.

In 1927, aged 17, he went to Berlin, where he saw films by Fritz Lang and Sergei Eisenstein. He then moved to Paris, where he saw Poussin's Massacre of the Innocents at Chantilly. Both are usually cited as lasting influences on his painting.

A painting of a pale dog on a dark ground, in a gold frame hung on a dark wall

What Did the Critics Think?

Time Out and Londonist each gave the show five stars. The Times was strongly positive, the Guardian called it uneven but compelling, and the Telegraph was mixed, saying the theme felt obvious.

A long teal-walled gallery with a decorated ceiling and visitors sitting on benches in front of paintings

Where Can You See Francis Bacon in London Now?

The National Portrait Gallery ran Francis Bacon: Human Presence from 10 October 2024 to 19 January 2025, with more than 50 works. Tate also holds his paintings, and its collection search shows what is on view.

His studio at 7 Reece Mews in South Kensington has been rebuilt at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, with its contents. I wrote about another show built around studios in my page on Whitechapel Gallery's A Century of the Artist's Studio.