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Francis Bacon’s painting of Lucian Freud is set to go under the hammer with a guide price of £35m after six decades in a private collection
- Francis Bacon painted friend Lucien Freud obsessively throughout the 1960s
- The play was private for 40 years and not seen in public for nearly six decades
- Sotheby’s said: “In this single portrait we bear witness to a masterpiece”
A painting by Francis Bacon is set to go up for auction later this month,
The Lucian Freud portrait is set to fetch over £35million on June 29 at a live auction.
The painting titled Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud has been held in a European private collection for 40 years and has not been seen in public since 1965.
Francis Bacon’s three-panel painting Three Studies Of Lucian Freud became the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction when Roman Abramovich paid £43million for Bacon’s triptych, from 1976 to 2008 .
Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon originally published as a triptych
The black-and-white photographs of mutual friend John Deakin became Bacon’s main source for his frequent paintings of Freud throughout their 40-year friendship.
It was painted by Francis Bacon in 1964 from a photograph taken by John Deakin of Lucien Freud.
Of the friendship, Sothebys said, “It is hard to think of two greater artists whose lives and works are so intertwined in the fabric of our consciousness than Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.”
Sotheby’s British Art: Jubilee Auction is selling the piece that is the central panel of a large-scale triptych.
The piece was last shown in a traveling exhibition in Hamburg, Stockholm and Dublin six decades ago.
Prior to the completion of the study for the portrait of Lucian Freud, the couple had a strong 20-year friendship which ended in the mid-1980s.
During their 40-year friendship, the two artists painted each other several times.
Freud liked to paint from real life and Bacon preferred to work from photographs.
Portrait of Francis Bacon was fiery from the National Gallery in Berlin 30 years ago Photo: Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud
For Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud, Bacon worked from a photo of Freud sitting on a bed, his fists clenched, the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up above his elbows.
John Deakin’s black and white photographs became Bacon’s primary source when he frequently painted Freud throughout the 1960s.
Sotheby’s said Francis Bacon kept the photographs with him for the rest of his life, but they were found torn, crumpled and spattered with paint after his death in 1992.
Expensive: Francis Bacon’s three-panel painting Three Studies Of Lucian Freud, pictured, became the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction when it sold for $142.4 million at Christie’s
The easel does: Triptych 1976, by Francis Bacon (1909-1992), purchased by Roman Abramovich in 2008
Senior Director of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s, Tom Eddison, said: “In this single portrait, we bear witness to a masterpiece, illuminating the deep and complex relationship between two titans of the 20th century.
“At once muses and critics for each other, it was their friendship, respect, rivalry and deep infatuation with each other that ultimately fueled their unequivocal artistic talents.
“Executed with painterly bravery at the height of Bacon’s acclaim, here we see a portrait that vibrates with an intensity, a tension that reflects the emotions that have bonded these two sparring partners for more than four decades.
“Now, having remained completely invisible to the public for 57 years, this remarkable portrait will return to London as the highlight of the summer auction season.”
