Francis Bacon

From researching Austrian artist Egon Schiele, I decided I wanted the makeup for the runaway theme to be warped and twisted to symbolise that the subject is a victim and has been manipulated. Another artist that depicts figures as deformed and distorted is Francis Bacon. The figures he paints are a lot more abstract than Egon Schiele. I decided to also look into the British artist for inspiration.


 Francis Bacon was active during the 20th century from 1929-92. He mostly painted people although they were so abstracted, a lot of the time they didn't even look human. A lot of his work came after World War 2, when the deaths in the Nazi concentration camps were starting to surface. One of his first paintings, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion3, depicts mutated forms which are said to symbolise human corruption which relates to my theme. He created a few paintings which were hybrids of humans and fictional monstrous creatures. These could be a symbol of human nature.


His style is definitely expressionistic.  He often created a blurred and smudged effect. His paintings look as if he has casually smeared the paint across the canvas. In some of his paintings he smears the faces of subjects, making it look as if the face is disappearing. In some paintings he has completely blocked out some facial features. His brush strokes are very distinct. There are no or few harsh lines or angles in his work; lines and forms are very fluid. However, the brush strokes also appear to be rapid and aggressive. A lot of his paintings have a violent quality to them. A style he became accustomed to using was where he would paint vertical streaks over his subjects which looked like they were caged.


The colours he uses are mainly dull, bloody and fleshy. Death is a theme that features in his work quite frequently.  He builds up thin layers of colour to create a ghostly translucent effect.  Although a lot of his paintings use very dark, dull colours, a lot of his paintings also employ a wide range of tones. In these paintings his shading and highlighting is very clear cut and exaggerated and not blended out much. There is a high contrast between light and dark.  

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, 1944, oil and pastel on cardboard
The figures here are monstrous, deformed and grotesque.

Head I, 1948, oil and tempera on wood
Bacon merges a human head with a monstrous and grotesque being like the figures from the Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion

Untitled (Figure), 1950-1951, oil on canvas
After 1950, Bacon began featuring this streaked paint effect which created the look of a cage

Study after Vélázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1953, oil on canvas
The paint is smudged, half concealing the identity of the subject

Figure with Meat, 1954, oil on canvas
The dark, fleshy colours look violent and threatening

Three Studies for a Crucifixion, 1962, oil with sand on canvas
I love this style of his, which became more emphasised in Bacon's work in the early 1960s where his figures are extremely warped with dramatic colour contrast. I think I will try and incorporate this style into my makeup look.

Study for Head of George Dyer, 1967, oil on canvas
The colours used are unrealistic and I like how the face appears to be melting

Study of Isabel Rawsthorne, 1966, oil on canvas
This image is extremely grotesque and the dark colours make it look even more sinister and haunting. The face has been manipulated so much it doesn't even look human anymore.

Study of Henrietta Moraes, 1969, oil on canvas
The face looks broken up like a jigsaw puzzle. The contrast between shadows and highlights is very extreme here. He appears to use a swirling motion with the brush.

Research Resources:

http://www.francis-bacon.com/
http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/bacon1.html