Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma

421 Pages·2009·3.63 MB·English

by  Michael Peppiatt

After graduating from Cambridge in 1964, Michael Peppiatt worked briefly in
London as an art critic on the Observer before settling in Paris, where he has
been literary editor for Le Monde and arts correspondent for the New York Times
and the Financial Times. He has written extensively on modern and
contemporary art and curated numerous exhibitions. In 1985 he became editor
and publisher of the magazine Art International. He is married to the art
historian Jill Lloyd and now divides his time between Paris and London.

Praise for Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma
‘Proof again that biography thrives . . . This account of a life, as Peppiatt puts it, “filled with the extremes of
human emotion and devoted to expressing them with utmost force”, is probably more readable and
enjoyable than the attempts at exhaustive biography which surely lie ahead.’
Gilbert De Botton, Literary Review
‘Michael Peppiatt’s biography puts [Bacon’s] story kindly and, I think, accurately down on paper for the
record. For anyone who knew Bacon, it opens floodgates that bring back teeming memories – mostly
bizarre – which personify the variations of the man whom Peppiatt calls an enigma.’
Jeffrey Bernard, Sunday Times
‘Peppiatt’s conscientious detective work has thrown up some new evidence . . . Where Peppiatt is at his
best, however, is in describing the work in such a way as to make you want to go and look at it, not only
again, but right now.’
George Melly, Daily Telegraph
‘Michael Peppiatt’s Francis Bacon takes the lid off all the unsavoury stews in which the great man
immersed himself. It is both the very candid portrait of a painter and an intimate social history of a vanished
London Bohemia.’
Frederic Raphael, Sunday Times
‘Peppiatt is good on Bacon’s ill-starred lovers and their effect on his life and work . . . He sifts facts from
legend in the early years to achieve the most convincing portrait yet published of this dissolute, amoral,
asthmatic, immensely intelligent sprig of a well-to-do, unattractive English family living in Ireland . . .
Future books on Bacon will owe him a solid debt.’
Richard Shone, Spectator
‘Michael Peppiatt . . . has two vital qualifications for the task of writing about Bacon: he knew the painter
well for many years, and is a practising art critic who has clearly pondered Bacon’s work deeply.’
Martin Gayford, Sunday Telegraph
‘You never forget that you are reading not just about some Soho boho, but one of the greatest and most
serious painters of the century.’
Philip Hensher, Mail on Sunday
FRANCIS BACON
Anatomy of an Enigma
Michael Peppiatt
A Herman Graf Book
Skyhorse Publishing
Copyright © 2009 by Michael Peppiatt All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner
without the express written consent of the publisher, except
in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles.
All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing,
555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 903, New York, NY 10018.
Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk
at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts,
fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions
can also be created to specifications. For details, contact
the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing,
555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 903, New York, NY 10018
or [email protected].

www.skyhorsepublishing.com
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peppiatt, Michael.
Francis Bacon : anatomy of an enigma / Michael Peppiatt.
p. cm.
Originally published: London : Constable, 2008.
ISBN 978-1-60239-762-0
1. Bacon, Francis, 1909-1992. 2. Painters--Great Britain--Biography.
I. Title.
ND497.B16P46 2009
759.2--dc22
[B]
2009008801
ISBN 978-1-60239-762-0
Printed in the EU
To Jill, Clio and Alexander
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface
Part One 1909–44
1 ‘The Weakling of the Family’, 1909–26
2 Educated Abroad: Berlin and Paris, 1926–28
3 A Brief Apprenticeship, 1928–33
4 ‘Insufficiently Surreal’, 1933–39
5 A Vision without Veils, 1939–44
Part Two 1944–63
6 Father Figures and Crucifixions, 1944–46
7 Towards Other Shores, 1946–50
8 Hounded by Furies, 1950–54
9 Truth Told by a Lie, 1954–58
10 Recognition at Home: The Tate Retrospective, 1958–63
Part Three 1963–92
11 ‘A Brilliant Fool Like Me’, 1963–69
12 All the Honours of Paris, 1969–72
13 Elegy for the Dead, 1972–75
14 ‘My Exhilarated Despair’, 1975–80
15 Alone in the Studio, 1980–84
16 ‘The Greatest Living Painter’, 1984–92
Postscript: The Afterlife of an Atheist
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
Francis Bacon, photographed by John Deakin, 1952. © The Estate of Francis
Bacon. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2008.
Winifred and Edward Bacon c. 1910. © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All Rights
Reserved, DACS 2008.
Francis, his brother Edward and their Firth cousins. Private Collection.
Jessie Lightfoot, the family nanny. © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All Rights
Reserved, DACS 2008.
Francis Bacon, aged 16. Private Collection.
Working documents from Bacon’s studio:
A charging Rhinoceros (from Marius Maxwell’s Stalking Big Game with a
Camera in Equatorial Africa, 1924).
A corrida.
A male patient during a fit of hysteria at the Salpêtière Hospital, Paris, 1882.
Men wrestling by Eadweard Muybridge.
Hitler during the French campaign.
An Egyptian death mask.
All © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2008.
Lovers and models:
George Dyer in the studio.
Peter Lacy.
George Dyer with Bacon in Soho, c. 1960.
Lucian Freud.