Head V - Misplaced Pages

1949 painting by Francis Bacon

Head V

Artist	Francis Bacon
Year	1949
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	82 cm × 66 cm (32 in × 26 in)
Location	Private collection

Head V is a 1949 painting by Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon, one of the series of works made in 1949 for his first one-man exhibition at the Hanover Gallery, in London. It measures 82 by 66 centimetres (32 in × 26 in) and is held in a private collection. The painting is part of a series of six works from the late 1940s depicting heads. Like Head II, the work depicts a distorted head in a space in a space shrouded with vertical bands interpreted as curtains, with several safety pins in the curtains.

Bacon's six Head paintings were first exhibited at the Hanover Gallery in 1949, alongside four other important early works by Bacon: Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, Figure in a landscape, Study from the Human Body (also known as Study for Figure) and Study for Portrait (also known as Man in a Blue Box). It has been described as one of the most elusive images produced by Bacon and also as the most abstract or indistinct picture of the series. It has not been exhibited since 1958, and was owned by a private collector in Switzerland in 1964.

References

Farr; Peppiatt; Yard (1999), p. 13
"Exhibition catalogues: A chronological selection of solo and group exhibition catalogues from the MB Art Collection. Archived 2015-01-28 at the Wayback Machine". MB Art Foundation. Retrieved 20 May 2017

Sources

Dawson, Barbara; Sylvester, David. Francis Bacon in Dublin. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000. ISBN 978-0-500-28254-0
Farr, Dennis; Peppiatt, Michael; Yard, Sally. Francis Bacon: A Retrospective. NY: Harry N Abrams, 1999. ISBN 978-0-8109-2925-8
Peppiatt, Michael. Anatomy of an Enigma. London: Westview Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-8133-3520-9
Russell, John. Francis Bacon (World of Art). NY: Norton, 1971. ISBN 978-0-500-20169-5

External links

Head V (1949), francis-bacon.com
Head V, 1949, Artimage
Wyndham Lewis and Francis Bacon, Jan Cox

v t e Francis Bacon (artist)
List of paintings
Crucifixions	Crucifixion (1933) Wound for a Crucifixion (1933) Fragment of a Crucifixion (1950)
Figures	Figure in a Landscape (1945) Painting 1946 (1946) Study for Crouching Nude (1952) Two Figures (1953) Three Studies from the Human Head (1953) Study for Portrait II (After the Life Mask of William Blake) (1955) Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe (1968) Study for a Bullfight, Number 2 (1969) Three Studies of the Male Back (1970) Blood on the Floor (1986)
Head series	Head I (1949) Head II (1949) Head III (1949) Head IV (1949) Head V (1949) Head VI (1949)
Popes	Study after Velázquez (1950) Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953) Figure with Meat (1954) Untitled (Pope) (c. 1954) Study from Innocent X (1962) Study of Red Pope 1962. 2nd version 1971 (1971)
Triptychs	Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944) Three Studies for a Crucifixion (1962) Three Figures in a Room (1964) Crucifixion (1965) Triptych Inspired by T.S. Eliot's Poem "Sweeney Agonistes" (1967) Two Figures Lying on a Bed with Attendants (1968) Triptych, 1976 (1976) Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus (1981) Second Version of Triptych 1944 (1988)
Black Triptychs	Triptych–August 1972 (1972) Triptych, May–June 1973 (1973)
Male portraits	Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer (1964) Portrait of George Dyer Talking (1966) Three Studies for George Dyer (1967) Portrait of George Dyer and Lucian Freud (1967) Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969) Portrait of Michel Leiris (1976)
Female portraits	Three Studies for a Portrait of Henrietta Moraes (1963) Three Studies for a Portrait of Muriel Belcher (1966) Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne Standing in a Street in Soho (1967)
Self-portraits	Three Studies for Self Portrait (1973) Self-Portrait (1973) Three Studies for Self-Portrait (1979) Study for a Self-Portrait—Triptych, 1985–86 (1985–86)
Summary articles	List of large triptychs by Francis Bacon Triptychs by Francis Bacon The Black Triptychs Influences on Francis Bacon
Related	Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation (1981 book) Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998 film)

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