Francis Bacon

Figure Study I

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About this artwork

This is an important early painting by Bacon, as he destroyed much of his work from the period of 1935 to 1944. Despite the title, it is a figure study only by implication. It is one of the few works in Bacon's oeuvre that does not feature a figure, though the trilby hat and tweed overcoat suggest a human presence. The painting was followed by a similar work, Figure Study II (Huddersfield Art Gallery), which shows the same coat motif, from which a deformed, screaming figure - perhaps lurking under the coat in this painting - emerges.

Updated before 2020

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  • artist:
    Francis Bacon (1909 - 1992) BritishIrish
  • title:
    Figure Study I
  • date created:
    1946
  • materials:
    Oil on canvas
  • measurements:
    123.00 x 105.50 cm; Framed: 134.40 x 116.30 x 4.00 cm / 28.00 kg
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Accepted by H.M. Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 1998
  • accession number:
    GMA 3941
  • gallery:
  • glossary:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
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Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon