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<\/p>\nThree late paintings by Francis Bacon\u2014Study from the Human Body \u2014 Figure in Movement (1982), Study from the Human Body (1986) and Man at a Washbasin (1989-1990) \u2014 are due to go on show at Gagosian in Paris next month, highlighting the artist’s deep relationship with the French capital.<\/p>\n
In 1971, Bacon was the subject of a landmark retrospective at the Grand Palais, which was tragically overshadowed by the death of his partner, George Dyer, on the eve of its opening. Bacon continued to frequently visit Paris between 1974 and 1987, notably staying at the legendary H\u00f4tel La Louisiane in Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s. During this period, he also kept a studio in the city, at 14 Rue de Birague in the Marais, just off Place des Vosges.<\/p>\n
Larry Gagosian tells The Art Newspaper: \u201cI have had a number of important Francis Bacon exhibitions in New York and London over the past 20 years, and Paris feels like the perfect place to bring these late paintings together for the first time. It’s a city that had a profound effect on the artist and his work. Our gallery off Place Vend\u00f4me is also an ideal venue\u2014each of the three canvases will be framed by the historic street arcade and visible for all of Paris to see and enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Study from the Human Body \u2014 Figure in Movement (1982), with its characteristic cadmium-orange background, reflects the painter\u2019s fascination with cricket. The truncated, nude body appears on a pedestal, near a mirror. The painting was included in Bacon\u2019s now-legendary exhibition at Galerie Maeght-Lelong in Paris in 1984, which drew such crowds that the police were forced to close the street, as Sebastian Smee recalls in his catalogue essay for the show. The work was last shown in Francis Bacon: Unsichtbare R\u00e4ume at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart in 2016-17.<\/p>\n
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Francis Bacon, Study from the Human Body (1986) \u00a9 The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved.\/DACS, London\/ARS, NY 2026. Photo: Annik Wetter. Courtesy Gagosian<\/p>\n
Study from the Human Body (1986) builds upon a closely related composition, with a mirror opening out to the right of a distorted figure seen in three-quarter view. Here, a vivid yellow background infuses the painting with sunlight. Rarely exhibited, the work featured in Bacon en toutes lettres at the Mus\u00e9e national d\u2019Art moderne\u2013Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2019\u201320.<\/p>\n
Man at a Washbasin (1989\u20131990) was also included in that exhibition, as well as in Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992, which opened just weeks after the artist\u2019s death in Madrid on 28 April of the same year. In this painting, Bacon returns to a motif first explored in 1954. Whereas in the earlier, darker work the figure leans forward to the left over the washbasin, here it has moved to the opposite side. The figure is also more colourful, with a pair of blue shorts still caught around the left foot. The work \u201cderives from a photograph in Muybridge\u2019s sequence of a man boxing\u2014he\u2019d used it several times before. The man\u2019s position over the washbasin suggests he might be vomiting\u2014an extreme, involuntary action, both physical and psychological, which inevitably recalls the death of George Dyer\u201d, Smee writes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the privilege of the artist and the writer to give form to characters that are fully alive, fully real, whatever may separate them from everyday truth\u2014because the artist\u2019s role lies precisely in bringing something of themselves to the work, and in recreating the subject according to their own vision of reality,\u201d Francis Bacon is quoted as saying in the book Francis Bacon, le r\u00e9el mis \u00e0 nu, by Majid Boustany and Eddy Batache (published by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation in March 2026). The three paintings on view at Gagosian on Rue de Castiglione eloquently bear this out.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Francis Bacon, 11 April\u201330 May 2026, Gagosian, 9 Rue de Castiglione, 75001 Paris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three late paintings by Francis Bacon\u2014Study from the Human Body \u2014 Figure in Movement (1982), Study from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2052,2051,2054,2053,30],"class_list":{"0":"post-1966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-paris","8":"tag-art-market","9":"tag-commercial-galleries","10":"tag-francis-bacon","11":"tag-gagosian","12":"tag-paris"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}