Francis Bacon
Photograph
1952 (photographed)
1952 (photographed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
John Deakin was notorious for his brutal, no-holds-barred portraits of bohemian Soho in the 1950s, and this portrait of the artist Francis Bacon is no exception. Taken while Deakin and Bacon shared a cottage in the artists' colony of Wivenhoe Park, Essex, this portrait lays bare even the tiniest physical imperfection without diminishing the power of Bacon's wide-eyed gaze, simultaneously confrontational and anguished.
Deakin considered himself a painter first and was neglectful of his own photographs; as a result, most of his surviving work is torn and creased. His reputation, which had languished after his death in 1972, was revived by the V&A's 1984 exhibition The Salvage of the Photographer.
Deakin considered himself a painter first and was neglectful of his own photographs; as a result, most of his surviving work is torn and creased. His reputation, which had languished after his death in 1972, was revived by the V&A's 1984 exhibition The Salvage of the Photographer.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Francis Bacon (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Gelatin-silver print |
| Brief description | Francis Bacon, gelatin-silver print, John Deakin, 1952 |
| Physical description | Close-up full face portrait of Francis Bacon. The photograph is torn round the edges, with the lower right corner missing, and creased in the upper right corner. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label | Gallery 100, ‘History of photography’, 2011-2012, label text :
John Deakin (1912-72)
Francis Bacon
1952
Deakin’s portraits have a stark quality that seems
to delve into the soul of the sitter, in this case the
artist Francis Bacon. Many of Deakin’s prints were
discovered damaged in his rooms after his death.
The torn paper, left deliberately un-repaired, arguably
adds to the image’s intensity.
Gelatin silver print
Museum no. Ph.100-1984
(07 03 2014) |
| Credit line | Copyright Conde Nast |
| Object history | Deakin photographed Francis Bacon when the two of them shared a cottage in Wivenhoe Park, Essex, an artists' and writers' colony. Deakin had wanted to be a painter and was often careless and neglectful of his photographs. This portrait is no exception, with tears around the edges and one corner gone entirely. Historical significance: Deakin's reputation went into decline after his death in 1972; indeed, he had all but given up photography in the last years of his life, after brief stints at Vogue and two small exhibitions in Soho. Bruce Bernard rescued four boxes of photographs from his Soho flat after his death; these creased and tattered photographs formed the basis of the 1984 V&A exhibition The Salvage of a Photographer, which ensured Deakin's posthumous reputation. |
| Historical context | Deakin was noted for his brutal, no-holds-barred photographic portraits of the artists, writers, models and other bohemian figures who gathered around Bacon in Soho in the 1950s. There has been some controversy following Bacon's death in 1992 surrounding his reliance on Deakin's photographs to produce his paintings. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Association | |
| Summary | John Deakin was notorious for his brutal, no-holds-barred portraits of bohemian Soho in the 1950s, and this portrait of the artist Francis Bacon is no exception. Taken while Deakin and Bacon shared a cottage in the artists' colony of Wivenhoe Park, Essex, this portrait lays bare even the tiniest physical imperfection without diminishing the power of Bacon's wide-eyed gaze, simultaneously confrontational and anguished. Deakin considered himself a painter first and was neglectful of his own photographs; as a result, most of his surviving work is torn and creased. His reputation, which had languished after his death in 1972, was revived by the V&A's 1984 exhibition The Salvage of the Photographer. |
| Bibliographic reference | p. 112
Robin Muir, Vogue 100 : a century of style. London : The National Portrait Gallery, 2016. ISBN: 9781855145610. Published to accompany the exhibition held 11 February - 23 May 2016 at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and 24 June - 30 October 2016 at the Manchester Art Gallery. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | PH.100-1984 |
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| Record created | August 5, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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