"painting" (1946), francis bacon

8/11/2019 "Painting" (1946), Francis Bacon

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swirling ominously at the center of the canvas. The most

alarming feature of the politician is the face, half-

obscured by the shadow of the umbrella (the common

accoutrement of the London businessman), with only the grey-

skinned mouth, chin and jaw emerging from the gloom. The

mouth is half-cocked in a snarl, its jaws open, exposing

razor-like teeth and blood-red gums, as if the too-human

feature of lips has been torn away. The white collar, tie

and boutonniere, just below the chin, give the figure a

patina of manhood, but the wolfish gape of the mouth betrays

its actual sinister and bloodthirsty nature.

Bacons negative opinion of the war and the politicians

that encouraged soldiers to kill and be killed in it is

centered on the snaggle-toothed figure but enhanced by the

slaughterhouse setting in which the figure dwells. Behind

the politician is a cruciform cow carcass, a side of beef

stretched between both ends of the painting and hanging from

above. Also suspended from the imagined ceiling are

glistening coils of intestines, hanging like garlands. With

these creative uses of meat as decoration, Bacon suggests

the horrific, festive air that the political class gave the

war in order to make it publicly palatable. The additional

body parts and sides of beef that litter the bottom half of

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the painting, however, confirm the artists judgment of an

elite that has blood on its hands. Pairs of kidney-like

organs stick up from a steel rack in front of the figure,

while a roast and a side of ribs hang from a circular spit.

The floor below appears to be littered with green, red and

white bits of gristle and flesh. Bacons palate of rose and

violet dominate the background, suggesting the hollowed-out

cavity of a butchered animal, or a butchered man.

Three window shades hang on the left, center and right

sections of the background. These may suggest the blinds

that have been pulled to aver the publics vision of the

carnage that goes on during war, or they may refer to the

movie screens used to project images of the German death

camps that the public was allowed to view after the war.

Indeed, right below the left and right screens are what

appear to be barbed wire-topped prison walls, which suggest

a perspective that is obliterated by the dominating

politician and his trappings of gore.

Clearly, with this painting Bacon has abandoned the

respectful religious and political allegiances of past

masters, who would never depict such a blatantly damning

critique of a leader. In Painting, Bacon echoes works by

Goya such as The Disasters of War or The Second of May,

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1808, in which the hideous nature of war and its toll on

the common man are evidenced. Bacon is also most likely

influenced by Picassos 1937 work Guernica, a depiction of

the fascist bombing of Basque Spain. Both artists use an

abstracted but obviously biased and terror-inducing style to

indict war.

Bacon has also done away with the academically-approved

stylistic systems that Alberti instituted and Michelangelo

and Raphael perfected. Here there is no idealization of the

human form or perfection in nature. Rules of perspective and

circumscription are ignored, although the painting has

strong composition and the reception of light is imbued with

a large amount of contrast. Bacons liberal use of shadow

(surrounding the politician, engulfing the side of beef, and

filling the center of the painting) are suggestive of

Rembrandts use of deep shadow, while the subject matter of

carcasses and screens is reminiscent of the masters

depiction of an anatomy theater in 1632s The Anatomy

Lesson of Dr. Nicholaes Tulp. The figure floating on an

unsteady ground and the disembodied nature of the figure are

related to Picassos 1907 Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, whose

figures are also not at rest and whose limbs fade in and out

of connection to their body.

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Monets impressionistic use of paint is obviously a

precursor to abstractionists like Bacon, with cursory

brushstrokes that are a primary feature of Bacons rendering

of objects such as the meat rack. But Monets light-dappled,

bright, and delicately applied brushwork is quite refined in

comparison to the heavy handed, lurid swathes of color that

Bacon applies. Hence, Bacon uses the basic innovations of

Monet, the early modernist, but also draws on a respected

master like Rembrandt, in his mission to topple not only the

institution of political figures but also that of painterly

academe.

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"painting" (1946), francis bacon

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