Francis Bacon: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Francis Bacon painted with a library of borrowed images at his feet: reproductions of Velázquez, film stills, medical textbooks, photographs of animals in motion, all trampled into the floor of his Reece Mews studio. This mix traces that collage of sources, the Soho scene that held him, and the painters who inherited his scream.

The Kynda mix for Francis Bacon

• Key Influence · Portrait of Pope Innocent X by Diego Velázquez (1650). Bacon returned to this portrait obsessively from the late 1940s, producing dozens of 'screaming pope' variations, yet famously avoided seeing the original in Rome even when he was in the city — he worked only from reproductions. He called it one of the greatest paintings ever made and admitted he regretted the pope series, feeling he had vandalised something perfect. No single image shaped more of his output.
• Influencia Obscura · Animal Locomotion by Eadweard Muybridge (1887). Muybridge's sequential photographs of wrestlers, cripples and striding nudes were found in torn, paint-smeared fragments across Bacon's studio floor when it was catalogued after his death. He lifted whole postures from them — the two grappling men behind his coupling figures, the paralysed child on all fours — treating a Victorian scientific survey as a figure-drawing manual that bypassed illustration.
• Local Roots · Head VI by Lucian Freud (1986). Freud and Bacon met in the mid-1940s and spent years in near-daily contact around Soho's Colony Room and Wheeler's, painting each other repeatedly — Freud's small 1952 portrait of Bacon on copper was later stolen in Berlin. Bacon's speed and risk-taking pushed Freud away from fine Ingres-like line toward thickly loaded impasto flesh. Their friendship curdled irreparably by the 1980s.
• Beyond the Medium · The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot (1922). Bacon read Eliot constantly and took titles and atmosphere from him; Sweeney Agonistes gave him the title of his 1967 triptych Triptych Inspired by T.S. Eliot's Poem 'Sweeney Agonistes'. Eliot's method — fragments of myth, overheard speech and violence jammed together without transition — maps directly onto Bacon's triptych panels, which refuse narrative while insisting the three images belong together.
• Peer · Walking Man I by Alberto Giacometti (1960). Bacon met Giacometti in the 1960s and admired him above almost any living artist, visiting his 1965 Tate retrospective repeatedly; the two drank together and were photographed in conversation. Both pursued the human figure stripped to a nerve, isolated in an empty spatial cage, and both treated every attempt as a failure demanding another. Giacometti's drawing, Bacon said, was the finest of the century.
• From the Canon · Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion by Francis Bacon (1944). Shown at the Lefevre Gallery in April 1945 as the war ended, this orange triptych of blind, mouthed Furies made Bacon's reputation overnight and horrified its first viewers. He treated it as the beginning of his real career, destroying or disowning most earlier work. Every later device is already present: the triptych format, the flat saturated ground, the screaming aperture, the creature neither human nor animal.
• Key Collaborator · Photographs of Soho and the Colony Room circle by John Deakin (1962). Bacon commissioned Deakin, a hard-drinking Vogue photographer and Colony Room regular, to shoot Henrietta Moraes, Isabel Rawsthorne, Lucian Freud and George Dyer specifically as raw material for paintings. Bacon preferred working from these creased, bent, paint-spattered prints to working from life, saying sitters inhibited him. Deakin's harsh flash and blunt framing are visible throughout the portrait heads.
• Legacy · Propped by Jenny Saville (1992). Saville has repeatedly cited Bacon alongside de Kooning as formative, and shares his sources: medical and forensic photography, flesh seen as meat rather than nude. Her monumental bodies, smeared and compressed against the picture plane, extend his project of making paint behave like living tissue, while shifting it from the male body under torment to the female body under scrutiny.

What influenced Francis Bacon

• Pablo Picasso. The article describes Bacon’s 1930s biomorphic figures as Picasso-influenced. (also via Three Dancers) “The early paintings were influenced by such old masters as Matthias Grünewald , Diego Velázquez and Rembrandt , [ 64 ] but also by Picasso's late 1920s/early 1930s biomorphs” (Wikipedia)
• Diego Velázquez. The article names Velázquez as an influence on Bacon’s early paintings. (also via Portrait of Pope Innocent X) “The early paintings were influenced by such old masters as Matthias Grünewald , Diego Velázquez and Rembrandt , [ 64 ] but also by Picasso's late 1920s/early 1930s biomorphs” (Wikipedia)
• Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein (1925). States the film's imagery directly influenced painter Francis Bacon's work. “He also used the works of Matthias Grünewald [ 74 ] and photographic stills of the nurse in the Odessa Steps scene in Eisenstein's 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin .” (Wikipedia)
• Portrait of Pope Innocent X by Diego Velázquez (1650). Portrait of Pope Innocent X (Diego Velázquez) — titan for Francis Bacon “Although Bacon avoided seeing the original, it remained the painting that most affected him, and one to which he referred over and over.” (Wikipedia)
• Eadweard Muybridge. Bacon’s rendering of figures references Muybridge’s chronophotography. (also via Animal Locomotion) “The multi-phasing of his rendition of the figures, which often is also applied to the sitters in the portraits, is also a reference to Eadweard Muybridge 's chronophotography .” (Wikipedia)
• Matthias Grünewald. The article names Grünewald as an influence on Bacon’s early paintings. “He also used the works of Matthias Grünewald [ 74 ] and photographic stills of the nurse in the Odessa Steps scene in Eisenstein's 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin .” (Wikipedia)
• Raphael (1483). Raphael’s papal portraits are named as sources for Bacon’s Popes. “Bacon's series of Popes are largely based on Velázquez's 1650 painting Portrait of Innocent X (Galeria Doria Pamphili, Rome) and papal portraits by Raphael and Titian .” (Wikipedia)
• The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche (1872). The Birth of Tragedy (Friedrich Nietzsche) — culture for Francis Bacon “=== London, Berlin and Paris === Bacon spent the latter half of 1926 in London, on an allowance of £3 a week from his mother's trust fund, reading Friedrich Nietzsche.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Animal Locomotion by Eadweard Muybridge (1887). Animal Locomotion (Eadweard Muybridge) — ghost for Francis Bacon “The multi-phasing of his rendition of the figures, which often is also applied to the sitters in the portraits, is also a reference to Eadweard Muybridge's chronophotography.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Surrealism. The article says early Surrealist work influenced Bacon’s early paintings. “The early paintings were influenced by such old masters as Matthias Grünewald , Diego Velázquez and Rembrandt , [ 64 ] but also by Picasso's late 1920s/early 1930s biomorphs and the early work of the Surrealists .” (Wikipedia)
• The Massacre of the Innocents by Nicolas Poussin. Bacon repeatedly referred to Poussin’s painting in his later work. “At the Château de Chantilly (Musée Condé) he saw Nicolas Poussin's Massacre of the Innocents , a painting which he often referred to in his later work.” (Wikipedia)
• Michelangelo (1475). Michelangelo’s sculpture influenced the composition of Bacon’s nude figures. “The composition of especially the nude figures is influenced by the sculptural work of Michelangelo .” (Wikipedia)
• Three Dancers by Pablo Picasso (1925). Three Dancers (Pablo Picasso) — titan for Francis Bacon “=== Designer of furniture and rugs === Crucifixion (1933) was his first painting to attract public attention, and was in part based on Pablo Picasso's The Three Dancers of 1925.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Oresteia by Aeschylus (458). The Oresteia (Aeschylus) — culture for Francis Bacon “In 2020, his Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus (1981) sold for $84.5 million, confirming the enduring high valuation of his large-scale triptychs and intimate portraits, several of which now rank among the most expensive pos…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Metropolis by Fritz Lang (1927). The article identifies Metropolis as an influence on Bacon’s work. “He moved to Berlin in 1927, where he saw Fritz Lang 's Metropolis and Sergei Eisenstein 's Battleship Potemkin , both later to be influences on his work.” (Wikipedia)
• Rembrandt (1606). The article names Rembrandt as an influence on Bacon’s early paintings. “The early paintings were influenced by such old masters as Matthias Grünewald , Diego Velázquez and Rembrandt , [ 64 ] but also by Picasso's late 1920s/early 1930s biomorphs” (Wikipedia)
• Titian (1488). Titian’s papal portraits are named as sources for Bacon’s Popes. “Bacon's series of Popes are largely based on Velázquez's 1650 painting Portrait of Innocent X (Galeria Doria Pamphili, Rome) and papal portraits by Raphael and Titian .” (Wikipedia)
• The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot (1922). The Waste Land (T. S. Eliot) — culture for Francis Bacon (openlibrary.org)
• The Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein. The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein) — titan for Francis Bacon “He moved to Berlin in 1927, where he saw Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, both later to be influences on his work.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Positioning in Radiography by Kathleen Clara Clark (1939). Positioning in Radiography (Kathleen Clara Clark) — ghost for Francis Bacon

Peers and kindred spirits

• Frank Auerbach (1931). Auerbach is named as a regular at Bacon’s main haunt. (also via Head of E.O.W.) “But for a time I was closest to Francis—some of this sounds self-serving but it’s absolutely true. He was, from the beginning, quite interested in what I had to say—or so he said—and after my first show he went out of his way to get to k…” (Gagosian Quarterly)
• Daniel Farson. Farson is named as part of Bacon’s social circle. (also via The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon) “The club witnessed these future legends gravitating together and coming of age with their circle of friends, such as John Deakin, Lucian Freud, Daniel Farson, Frank Norman and Jeffrey Bernard.” (British GQ)
• Lucian Freud. Bacon and Freud belonged to the same Soho social circle. (also via Head VI) “Lucian and Francis were together all day, when they weren’t working, for a very considerable time, and it was very rare to see one without the other.” (Gagosian Quarterly)
• Muriel Belcher. Belcher is named among Bacon’s Soho friends. “The club was dominated, indeed created, by two personalities – that of its owner and founder, Muriel Belcher, who opened the Colony Room in 1948, and the artist Francis Bacon, who was one of her first customers.” (British GQ)
• The Colony Room. The article identifies the Colony Room as Bacon’s main haunt. “However, the club’s most famous member was Francis Bacon, who drank there for four decades and for whom it was a second home.” (British GQ)
• Graham Sutherland. Bacon and Sutherland exhibited in the same group show. “Although strikingly different in temperament, as artists and friends Graham Sutherland (1903-80) and Francis Bacon (1909-92) were very close in the 1940s.” (The Art Newspaper)
• Roy De Maistre. The article says Bacon probably shared a studio with De Maistre. “He probably shared a studio with Roy De Maistre circa 1931/32 in Chelsea .” (Wikipedia)
• Jeffrey Bernard. Bernard is named as part of Bacon’s social circle. “The club witnessed these future legends gravitating together and coming of age with their circle of friends, such as John Deakin, Lucian Freud, Daniel Farson, Frank Norman and Jeffrey Bernard.” (British GQ)
• John Deakin. Deakin is named among Bacon’s Soho friends. (also via Photographs of Soho and the Colony Room circle) “with like-minded friends including Lucian Freud (although they fell out in the mid-1970s, for reasons neither ever explained), John Deakin , Muriel Belcher , Henrietta Moraes” (Wikipedia)
• Alberto Giacometti. Three Studies for a Crucifixion (Francis Bacon) — peer for Alberto Giacometti (via Three Studies for a Crucifixion, Walking Man I) (wikidata.org)
• Tom Baker. Baker is named as part of Bacon’s social circle. “John Deakin , Muriel Belcher , Henrietta Moraes , Daniel Farson , Tom Baker and Jeffrey Bernard . After Dyer's suicide, he largely distanced himself from this circle” (Wikipedia)
• Isabel Rawsthorne. The article describes Rawsthorne as Bacon’s lifelong friend. “He had, by this time, embarked on his lifelong friendship with Isabel Rawsthorne , a painter closely involved with Giacometti and the Left Bank set.” (Wikipedia)
• Henrietta Moraes. Moraes is named among Bacon’s Soho friends. “with like-minded friends including Lucian Freud (although they fell out in the mid-1970s, for reasons neither ever explained), John Deakin , Muriel Belcher , Henrietta Moraes” (Wikipedia)
• Head of E.O.W. by Frank Auerbach (1960). Head of E.O.W. (Frank Auerbach) — geography for Francis Bacon “In 1948 he met John Minton, a regular at Muriel's, as were the painters Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Patrick Swift and the Vogue photographer John Deakin.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Michael Andrews. Auerbach recalls an artistic circle that included Michael Andrews, whom he calls Mike, and Bacon. “There seemed to be some sort of community between Mike, Lucian, Francis, and me, and he suggested that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a photograph taken of us” (Gagosian Quarterly)
• The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon by Daniel Farson (1993). The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon (Daniel Farson) — collaborator for Francis Bacon “A bon vivant, he spent his middle age eating, drinking and gambling in London's Soho with like-minded friends including Lucian Freud (although they fell out in the mid-1970s, for reasons neither ever explained), John Deakin, Muriel Belch…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• John Minton. Bacon met Minton at a club both frequented. “In 1948 he met John Minton , a regular at Muriel's, as were the painters Lucian Freud , Frank Auerbach , Patrick Swift and the Vogue photographer John Deakin .” (Wikipedia)
• Eric Hall. Hall organised a group exhibition in which Bacon participated. “Bacon exhibited in a group show in January 1937 at Thomas Agnew and Sons , 43 Old Bond Street, London, titled Young British Painters , which included Graham Sutherland and Roy De Maistre. Eric Hall organised the show.” (Wikipedia)
• Walking Man I by Alberto Giacometti (1960). Walking Man I (Alberto Giacometti) — peer for Francis Bacon “In 1950, Bacon met the art critic David Sylvester, then best known for his writing on Henry Moore and Alberto Giacometti.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Interviews with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester (1975). Interviews with Francis Bacon (David Sylvester) — collaborator for Francis Bacon “In 1950, Bacon met the art critic David Sylvester, then best known for his writing on Henry Moore and Alberto Giacometti.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Head VI by Lucian Freud (1986). Head VI (Lucian Freud) — geography for Francis Bacon “A bon vivant, he spent his middle age eating, drinking and gambling in London's Soho with like-minded friends including Lucian Freud (although they fell out in the mid-1970s, for reasons neither ever explained), John Deakin, Muriel Belch…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Photographs of Soho and the Colony Room circle by John Deakin (1962). Photographs of Soho and the Colony Room circle (John Deakin) — collaborator for Francis Bacon “A bon vivant, he spent his middle age eating, drinking and gambling in London's Soho with like-minded friends including Lucian Freud (although they fell out in the mid-1970s, for reasons neither ever explained), John Deakin, Muriel Belch…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Corps de dame by Jean Dubuffet (1950). Corps de dame (Jean Dubuffet) — peer for Francis Bacon (wikidata.org)
• Melanie and Me Swimming by Michael Andrews (1978). Melanie and Me Swimming (Michael Andrews) — geography for Francis Bacon (wikidata.org)
• Corpse and Mirror by Jasper Johns (1974). Corpse and Mirror (Jasper Johns) — peer for Francis Bacon (wikidata.org)
• Patrick Swift. Swift is named as a regular at Bacon’s main haunt.

Who Francis Bacon influenced

• Don Van Vliet. The article reports a comparison between Van Vliet's paintings and Bacon's work, not a stated influence. “others have compared his paintings to the work of Jackson Pollock , Franz Kline , Antonin Artaud , [ 13 ] Francis Bacon , [ 28 ] Vincent van Gogh , and Mark Rothko .” (Wikipedia)
• Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon. The film is identified as a fictional biography of Bacon. “Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon , a 1998 fictional biographical film of Bacon, that concentrates on his strained relationship with George Dyer” (Wikipedia)
• Propped by Jenny Saville (1992). Propped (Jenny Saville) — legacy for Francis Bacon (wikidata.org)
• Nightmare Rooms by Adrian Ghenie (2013). Nightmare Rooms (Adrian Ghenie) — legacy for Francis Bacon “His painterly style has been compared to that of Francis Bacon.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• A Thousand Years by Damien Hirst (1990). A Thousand Years (Damien Hirst) — legacy for Francis Bacon “In June that year, he exhibited alongside the work of Francis Bacon (Triptychs) at the Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street, London, an exhibition that included the vitrine, A Thousand Years (1990), and four triptychs: paintings, medicine …” (en.wikipedia.org)