Bacon Self-Portrait with Lucian Freud’s Body Exhibited at Christie’s

June 27 evening auction of post-war and contemporary art Christie’s will present a selection of works by two of the greatest British painters of the twentieth century. The main event of the auction will be “Sketch for a self-portrait”, written by Francis Bacon (Francis Bacon) in 1964.

Francis Bacon - Self Portrait

This sharp and extremely intimate picture of the artist is one of the twelve self-portraits he ever painted, four of which are currently in museum collections. Recent studies have shown that the man’s body in the picture does not belong to Bacon, but to his great friend, Lucian Freud. Preliminary picture was estimated at 20 million pounds.

Another unusual work to be presented at Christie’s is The Head of the Greek Man, one of the earliest works of Lucien Freud himself, dating back to 1946. For a long time, the picture was in the collection of Freud’s friend, artist John Graxton (John Craxton). The image of a Greek boy was taken during a trip to the island of Poros. The picture is interesting in that for the first time a mature pictorial technique of Freud was outlined in it. In addition, the influence of the icons seen by Freud in the Byzantine Museum in Athens is strongly felt in the picture. The initial cost of the painting is 1.5-2 million pounds.

Francis Outred, head of Christie’s post-war and contemporary art department, calls the upcoming auction “one of the most exciting of recent years.” Both Bacon and Freud are considered one of the most expensive contemporary artists in the world.

Anna Sidorova