Study from the human body
(1949)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
147.2 × 130.6 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1953
© Francis Bacon/ARS, New York. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Level 3, NGV International
About this work
Francis Bacon is a canonical figure, both in the history of British modernism, and in the broader history of queer art. Though accepting of his sexuality from a young age, Bacon often described it in negative terms. Born well before decriminalisation, the artist was cast out of the family home at sixteen when his father caught him trying on his mother’s underwear, and his adult interest in
sadomasochism has often been linked to his adolescent history of punishment. Drawing upon traditions of classical and religious art, and reinventing these in a radical, abstract figurative manner, Bacon created a uniquely complex and visceral iconography of homoerotic desire.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
2992-4
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Abstract Art Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
back views curtains (window hangings) men (male humans) nudes (representations) painterliness
Frame
Original, maker unknown
Frame
Francis Bacon's Study from the human body (Felton Bequest 1950) came to the collection in 1951 in the current frame, which can safely be considered the original presentation of the picture.
The frame is a simple wood moulding with a flat, stepped top edge and prominent scotia. The surface is gilded with false gold directly onto an off-white ground.
Bacon had a preference for heavy gilded frames fitted with protective glazing. The former referenced the legacy of his artistic predecessors, while the latter was a device to physically and symbolically distance the work from the viewer. Sylvester, D. (1987) Interviews with Francis Bacon. London : Thames and Hudson
The profile is one that would in previous times have carried runs of decorative moulding, in a style that might have been regarded as ‘Empire’. This method of using unadorned mouldings as the full substance of the frame became a common device in framing through the twentieth century.
For many years this painting was glazed with perspex. In September 2009 a piece of laminated optical coated glass was fitted to the painting.
Frame Details
Framemaker
Unknown - 20th century
Date
c.1949