Bacon

Francis Bacon
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion
ca. 1944
oil on panels
Tate Britain

 

Francis Bacon
Figure in a Landscape
1945
oil on canvas
Tate Britain

Francis Bacon
Head II
1949
oil on canvas
Ulster Museum, Belfast

Francis Bacon
Head VI
1949
oil on canvas
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London

Francis Bacon
Painting
1950
oil on canvas
Leeds Art Gallery, West Yorkshire

Francis Bacon
Study of Figure in a Landscape
1952
oil on canvas
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Francis Bacon
Robert J. Sainsbury
1955
oil on canvas
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
University of East Anglia, Norwich

Francis Bacon
Study for a Portrait of Van Gogh
1956
oil on canvas
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
University of East Anglia, Norwich

Francis Bacon
Lisa
1956
oil on canvas
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
University of East Anglia, Norwich

Francis Bacon
Lisa
1957
oil on canvas
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
University of East Anglia, Norwich

Francis Bacon
Study for a Portrait of Van Gogh VI
1957
oil on canvas
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London

Francis Bacon
Two Figures in a Room
1959
oil on canvas
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
University of East Anglia, Norwich

Francis Bacon
Head of a Man no. 1
1960
oil on canvas
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
University of East Anglia, Norwich

Francis Bacon
Head of a Woman
1960
oil on canvas
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
University of East Anglia, Norwich

Francis Bacon
Triptych
1972
oil on canvas
Tate Britain

Francis Bacon
Triptych
1984
lithographs
(adaptations of painted Triptych from 1983)
Hiscox Collection, London

Vulcan:

Stern pow'rs, your harsh commands have here an end,

Nor find resistance. My less hardy mind,

Averse to violence, shrinks back, and dreads

To bind a kindred god to this wild cliff,

Expos'd to ev'ry storm: but strong constraint

Compells me; I must steel my soul, and dare:

Jove's high commands require a prompt observance.

High-thoughted son of truth-directing Themis,

Thee with indissoluble chains, perforce,

Must I now rivet to this savage rock,

Where neither human voice, nor human form

Shall meet thine eye, but parching in the beams,

Unshelter'd, of yon fervid sun, thy bloom

Shall lose its grace, and make thee with th'approach

Of grateful evening mild, whose dusky stole

Spangled with gems shall veil his fiery heat;

And night upon the whitening ground breathe frore,

But soon to melt, touch'd by his orient ray.

So shall some present ill with varied pain

Afflict thee; nor is he yet born, whose hand

Shall set thee free: thus thy humanity

Receives its meed, that thou, a god, regardless

Of the gods' anger, honouredst mortal men

With courtesies, which justice not approves.

Therefore the joyless station of this rock

Unsleeping, unreclining, shalt thou keep,

And many a groan, many a loud lament

Throw out in vain, nor move the rig'rous breast

Of Jove, relentless in his youthful pow'r. 

– Aeschylus, Prometheus Chain'd

(as translated by Robert Potter in 1779 – the first English translation)