Sotheby's London to offer Francis Bacon's Study for Head of George Dyer SOTHEBY’S LONDON TO OFFER EXCEPTIONALLY RARE STUDY FOR HEAD OF GEORGE DYER BY FRANCIS BACON
News-Antique.com - May 30,2008 - -- COMPELLING PORTRAIT OF THE LOVE OF THE ARTIST’S LIFE
-- IN THE SAME COLLECTION FOR OVER 40 YEARS
Francis Bacon (1909-1992)
Study for Head of George Dyer, 1967
Estimate in excess of £8 million
SOTHEBY’S is delighted to announce that it will offer Study for Head of George Dyer, 1967 by Francis
Bacon (1909-92) in its Evening Sale of Contemporary Art on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008. Francis Bacon is
widely regarded as one of the greatest painters of the 20th century and this work is not only an exceptionally
rare, intimate depiction of Dyer - the love of Bacon’s life - but is also an outstanding example of Bacon at the
height of his powers. It is a rare lifetime depiction of Dyer and is also representative of Bacon’s life in London
during the 1960s, a period which the artist spent in the gritty milieu of swinging Soho. The work is
outstanding in its execution, presenting brushwork and an exuberance of colour that is equalled by only a
handful of other works by the artist, and it is totally fresh to the market, having been acquired by the current
owner directly from the Marlborough Gallery only two months after Bacon painted it in 1967. With a pre-sale
estimate in excess of £8 million, it is offered ahead of Tate Britain’s major retrospective entitled Francis
Bacon, which opens in September 2008 and continues into early 2009 – Bacon’s centenary year.
Oliver Barker, Senior Specialist, Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s London said: “Study for Head of George
Dyer represents the zenith of achievement in portraiture for Bacon, an artist who is world-renowned for
accomplishing an incredible likeness to his subject via a seemingly chaotic use of brushstrokes on the canvas.
Painted in 1967, at the height of Bacon’s love affair with Dyer, this emotionally rousing work is the iconic
crystallisation of the most significant relationship of Bacon’s life. We expect it to create great excitement at
auction, coming at a moment when the market for works by Bacon is at an all-time high. The offering follows
Sotheby’s extremely successful sale of Self Portrait, 1969 – painted in the same small-scale format - which
achieved $33 million in November 2007.”
Study for Head of George Dyer is a rare type of eulogy to Dyer, not least because Bacon destroyed any
canvas that he deemed unsatisfactory. Indeed, despite 129 photographs of Dyer being found in Bacon’s
studio after the artist’s death, this painting is one of only two known designated portraits in this single 14 by
12 inch format. From the early 1960s Bacon only worked on two sizes of canvas, either a 78 by 58 inch or a
14 by 12 inch format. Whereas his monumental Triptych 1976, sold at Sotheby’s New York on May 14th for a
world record $86.2 million*, enlists epic narrative to confront universal themes with the large format, by
contrast Study for Head of George Dyer uses the more intimate format for one of the most profoundly
personal and
