FRANCIS BACON (Dublin, 1909- Madrid, 1992)."Three studies for a self-portrait".Lithograph on

FRANCIS BACON (Dublin, 1909- Madrid, 1992).
"Three studies for a self-portrait".
Lithograph on Arches paper, E.A. copy.
Signed and justified by hand.
Work acquired at the Coskun Gallery in London in 2008.
Size: 52 x 94 cm; 79 x 121 cm (frame).

Paper has a slight tear in the lower right corner. 

Francis Bacon is the author of some of the most striking and unprecedented paintings in contemporary art. His style, obsessive, tormented and heartbreaking, is a clear document of the hardship experienced in Europe after the Second World War. His works are currently fetching stratospheric sums at international auctions, making him one of the most sought-after artists on the art market today. A reflection of this is the triptych "Three Studies by Lucian Freud (1969)", which in 2013 reached a record sale price of 142 million dollars at public auction, making it one of the three most expensive works in history. Some of his works can be seen in the world's most important art galleries, such as the Tate Britain in London (which has one of the artist's most extensive collections), the MET and the Moma in New York, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Museo Reina Sofía.
"Three Studies for a Self-Portrait" emphatically defines what Bacon's art was all about. Decomposed, isolated, disturbing and spiritual figures that, far from seeking a specific resemblance to the person depicted, delve into the spirituality of the sitter. Here we see the abstraction, fragmentation and distortion of the painter's face, a key aspect in Bacon's artistic development, a consequence of the life events that made his existence a fervent time bomb about to explode. Through his work he expresses his vital condition, which is also linked to his self-destructive side, thus managing to express loneliness, violence and degradation.
Born in Dublin, although of English parents, Francis Bacon began painting as a self-taught artist. When he was only 17, in 1927, the Paul Rosemberg gallery opened its doors to the painter. There he became acquainted with the work of Pablo Picasso, an artist he would admire throughout his career. Like Picasso, other painters made an impression on Bacon's work: Velázquez (whose version of Pope Innocent X he painted, producing at least 40 "popes") and Nicolas Poussin, whose "The Massacre of the Innocents", now in the Musée Condé, aroused intense emotion in him. In 1945 he exhibited in London, together with the English artists Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland, his painting Three Studies for Figures at the Foot of a Crucifixion (c. 1944), a triptych which, according to Bacon himself, marked the starting point of his career. By 1945 Bacon had developed his own unmistakable style. In 1949 the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) bought an impressive work by Bacon entitled Painting 1946. In 1956 he was invited to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale alongside Ben Nicholson and Lucian Freud. With his work, Bacon decided that the subject of his paintings would be both life in death and death in life. He sought to express his vital condition, which was also linked to his self-destructive side. Michel Leiris suggested to him that masochism, sadism and similar manifestations were really just ways of feeling more human. Portraits and self-portraits constitute an important part of Bacon's paintings, among them George Dyer in a Mirror of 1968, a work in which the painter suggests the vulnerability and fragility of the self. Bacon made portraits without poses taken from life, developed from photographs. He portrayed his intimate companions and friends as well as famous people: Peter Lacy, George Dyer and John Edwards, Henrietta Moraes, Isabel Rawsthorne, Muriel Belcher, Lucian Freud, Peter Beard and Michel Leiris, as well as Hitler, Pius XII and Mick Jagger. Some of his works can be seen in the most important art galleries in the world, such as the Tate Britain in London (which has one of the artist's most extensive collections), the MET and the Moma in New York, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Muse