Particularly compelling in light of the artist’s stated ambition ‘to be able to paint the mouth like Monet painted a sunset’, this 1963 work is the most dramatic of a series of four paintings that seem to signal a fresh start for Bacon after the devastating impact of the death of his former lover, Peter Lacy
It’s thought that the first pair of spectacles was made in Italy in the 13th century. They consisted of two lenses riveted together, had no sides, and typically needed to be held in place by the wearer’s hand. In the intervening centuries, the technology behind — and the design of — spectacles has evolved, but their use has remained constant.
It’s no surprise, then, that they appear in pictures across art history: from El Greco’s portrait of the bespectacled Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara, via Jean-Siméon Chardin’s depictions of himself in old age, to Grant Wood’s American Gothic (the male figure in which carries a pitchfork and wears round glasses).
No consideration of this topic is complete, though, without mention of a thrilling set of paintings by Francis Bacon. Marking a pivotal moment in the artist’s career, the series comprises four works — each depicting a man in glasses. He unveiled them publicly at a solo exhibition at Marlborough Gallery in London in July 1963.
The painting described by the curator and Bacon scholar Dennis Farr as ‘the most dramatic and disquieting of the series’ — Portrait of Man with Glasses III — is being offered in the 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale at Christie’s on 5 March 2025.
https://www.instagram.com/christiesinc/reel/DGjH7uDIIiE/
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/francis-bacon-1909-1992-6523670
