Permeated by anguished visions of humanity, Francis Bacon’s paintings embody the existential ethos of the postwar era. In his powerful, nihilistic works, tormented and deformed figures become players in dark, unresolved dramas. Bacon often referred in his paintings to the history of art, interpreting borrowed images through his own bleak mentality. Figure with Meat is part of a now-famous series he devoted to Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (c. 1650; Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, Rome). Here he transformed the Spanish Baroque artist’s iconic portrayal of papal authority into a nightmarish image, in which the blurred figure of the pope, seen as if through a veil, seems trapped in a glass-box torture chamber, his mouth open in a silent scream. Instead of the noble drapery that frames Velázquez’s pope, Bacon is flanked by two sides of beef, quoting the work of seventeenth-century Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn and twentieth-century Russian artist Chaim Soutine, both of whom painted brutal and haunting images of raw meat. Framed by the carcass, Bacon’s pope can be seen alternately as a depraved butcher, or as much a victim as the slaughtered animal hanging behind him.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
“Exhibitions,” “Architectural Review” 117, 700 (April 1955), pp. 270–71 (ill.).
“Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago” (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 17, as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef.”
John Rothenstein, “British Art Since 1900: An Anthology” (Phaidon, 1962), pl. 133 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef.”
Jane Harrison, “Dissent on Francis Bacon,” “Arts” 38, 3 (December 1963), p. 23 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef (Study After Velázquez).”
Ronald Alley, “Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné” (Thames and Hudson, 1964), cat. 90 (ill.).
John Russell, “Francis Bacon,” “Aujourd’hui” 9, 50 (July 1965), p. 65 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef (Study After Velázquez).
“Instituto de Arte de Chicago,” El mundo de los museos (Madrid: Editorial Codex, 1967), pp. 16 (ill.), 81 (color ill.).
H. H. Arnason, “History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture” (Harry N. Abrams, 1968), p. 532, pl. 223 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef (Study After Velázquez)”; 2nd ed. (1977), p. 559, pl. 229 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef (Study After Velázquez)”; 3rd ed. (1986), p. 435, pl. 208 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef (Study After Velázquez).”
Michael Greenwood, “Mark Prent,” “Artscanada” 29, 2 (Spring 1972), p. 40 (ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef.”
David W. Boxer, “The Early Work of Francis Bacon” (Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1975), pp. 81, 117, fig. 60 (ill.).
Lorenza Trucchi, “Francis Bacon,” trans. John Shepley (Harry N. Abrams, 1975), p. 14, as “Figure with Meat, 1960,”cat. 41 (ill.).
Hugh M. Davies, “Francis Bacon: The Early and Middle Years, 1928–1958,” Outstanding Dissertations in the Fine Arts (Garland Publishing, 1978), p. 116.
Wieland Schmied, “Francis Bacon: Vier Studien zu einem Porträt” (Berlin: Frölich und Kaufmann, 1985), p. 65, pl. 143 (ill.), fig. 96 (ill.); rev. and trans. ed., “Francis Bacon: Commitment and Conflict” (Prestel, 1996), p. 79, pl. 13 (color ill.), fig. 83 (ill.).
James N. Wood and Katharine C. Lee, “Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago” (Art Institute of Chicago/New York Graphic Society Books and Little, Brown and Company, 1988), p. 150 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef”; 2nd ed., James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Hudson Hills Press, 1999), p. 151 (color ill.).
Ernst van Alphen, “Francis Bacon and the Loss of Self” (Reaktion Books, 1992), p. 102, fig. 56 (ill.).
Rudy Chiappini, ed., “Francis Bacon,” exh. cat. (Lugano: Museo d’Arte Moderna/Electa, 1993), p. 62.
Frederick Hartt, “Art: A History of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture,” 4th ed. (Harry N. Abrams, 1993), p. 1017, fig. 38-15 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef.”
James N. Wood, “Treasures of 19th- and 20th-Century Painting: The Art Institute of Chicago (Abbeville Press, 1993), p. 251 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef.”
H. W. Janson, “History of Art,” 5th ed. (Harry N. Abrams, 1995), pp. 799, 813, fig. 1099 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef”; H. W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson, 5th ed. rev. (1997), pp. 825, 840, fig. 1084 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef”; 6th ed. (2001), pp. 816, 833, fig. 24-64 (color ill.), as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef.”
Michael Peppiatt, “Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma” (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996), p. 163.
David Sylvester et al., “Francis Bacon,” exh. cat. (Munich: Haus der Kunst, 1996), p. 35 (ill.).
James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein, “The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth-Century Painting and Sculpture” (Hudson Hills Press, 1996), p. 106 (color ill.).
“Francis Bacon,” exh. cat. (Humlebaek, Denmark: Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst, 1997), p. 41 (color ill.).
Luigi Ficacci, “Francis Bacon, 1909–1992” (Taschen, 2003), p. 27 (color ill).
Michael Peppiatt, “Francis Bacon: le sacré et le profane,” exh. cat. (Paris: Fondation Dina Vierny-Musée Maillol, 2004), pp. ii, 29 (ill.).
Wilfried Seipel, Barbara Steffen, and Christoph Vitali, Francis Bacon and the Tradition of Art, exh. cat. (Fondation Beyeler, 2004), pp. 67, 311, cat. 136 (color ill.).
Martin Harrison, “In Camera, Francis Bacon: Photography, Film and the Practice of Painting” (Thames and Hudson, 2005), pp. 126, 160–61, fig. 177 (color ill.).
Armin Zweite, Maria Müller, and Peter Bürger, Francis Bacon: The Violence of the Real, exh. cat. (
Elena Crippa and Catherine Lampert, London Calling: Bacon, Freud, Kossoff, Andrews, Auerbach, and Kitaj, exh. cat. (J. Paul Getty Museum/Tate, 2016), pp. 21; 35 (color ill.); 130.
Elena Crippa and Catherine Lampert, London Calling: Bacon, Freud, Kossoff, Andrews, Auerbach, and Kitaj, exh. cat. (Tate Publishing, 2016), pp. 21; 35 (color ill.); 130.
Pia Goebel, Anja Heitzer, and Sebastian Schneider, 1,5 Grad : Verflechtungen von Leben, Kosmos, Technik/1.5 Degrees: Interdependencies between Life, the Cosmos, and Technology, exh. cat. (Mannheim: Kunsthalle Mannheim; Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2023), 34, 35 (color ill.), 46.
London, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Francis Bacon, Jan. 19–Feb. 19, 1955, organized by Peter Watson, exh. pamphlet, cat. 13, as “Study After Velázquez.”
Arts Club of Chicago, Surrealism Then and Now, Oct. 1–30, 1958, cat. 1, as “Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef.”
London, Tate Gallery, Francis Bacon, May 24–July 1, 1962, cat. 42, as “Study After Velázquez.”
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Francis Bacon, Oct. 18, 1963–Jan. 12, 1964, cat. 27, as Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef (Study After Velázquez); Art Institute of Chicago, Jan. 24–Feb. 23, 1964,
Montreal, Expo 67, Man and His World, International Fine Arts Exhibition, Apr. 28–Oct. 27, 1967, cat. 123, as Figure with Meat (Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef).
Des Moines Art Center, Art in Western Europe: The Postwar Years, 1945–1955, Sept. 19–Oct. 29, 1978, cat. 4, as Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef (Study After Velázquez).
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Francis Bacon and the Tradition of Art, Oct. 15, 2003–Jan.18, 2004, cat. 136; Basel, Fondation Beyeler, Feb. 8–June 27, 2004 (Basel only).
Dusseldorf, K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Francis Bacon: The Violence of the Real, Sept. 16, 2006–Jan. 7, 2007, cat. 13.
Norwich, England, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Francis Bacon: Paintings from the 1950s, Sept. 26–Dec. 10, 2006; Milwaukee Art Museum, Jan. 29–Apr. 15, 2007, Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, May 5–July 30, 2007 (Milwaukee and Buffalo only).
Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Francis Bacon: Five Decades, Nov. 17, 2012–Feb. 24, 2013.
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, London Calling: Bacon, Freud, Kossoff, Andrews, Auerbach, and Kitaj, July 26–Nov. 13, 2016, no cat. no.
Lucien Freud, London, by 1955; sold through Hanover Gallery, London, to the Art Institute, 1956.
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