According to the auction house Sotheby's, 1 July 2008 will be offered for auction a very rare work of Francis Bacon (1909-1992) «Etude head of George Dyer»

According to the auction house Sotheby's, 1 July 2008 will be offered for auction a very rare work of Francis Bacon (1909-1992) «Etude head of George Dyer». This painting - one of the few known portraits of your beloved lifetime Bacon - was written in 1967, when the artist was at the peak of creativity.

This work will be sold at auction for the first time, the present owner acquired the portrait in London, Marlborough Gallery only two months after its creation.

Estimeyt picture is 8 million pounds (about 15.7 million dollars). However, many data indicate that the estimeyt will be exceeded, since the demand for the work of Francis Bacon is very high. To date, Bacon is the author of the most expensive works of postwar art. On 14 May this year, his «Triptych 1976» was sold at Sotheby's auction for 86,281 million dollars.

Since the early 1960's Bacon to create works in two formats: 78 x 58 inches, or 198.1 x 147.3 cm (monumental work on the reflections on the major issues of human existence, such as «Triptych 1976» ), and 14 x 12 inches, or 35.6 x 30.5 cm (a «intimate» portraits). Painting «Etude head of George Dyer» small size, but this does not seem to interfere with its success on the bidding: in November 2007 work Bacon «Self» of the same size was sold at Sotheby's for 33 million dollars.

interest in the painting and it fuels the plot. We know that after the death of Bacon in his studio, it was found 129 photographs of George Dyer (the artist has never painted portraits from life, using the photo), but the lifetime of small portraits of people, which many researchers have the life and work of Bacon felt the love of lifelong artist, knows all two. Bacon was the most stringent critic of his life and destroyed all the paintings, which are regarded as having failed.

The artist became acquainted with George Dyer in autumn 1963 in a bar in London Soho bohemian district. Dyer, a native of proletarian East End, was not very educated, and spent several periods of imprisonment for theft and petty crime. But he was very handsome and well dressed, that soon enabled him to take the place of the deceased in 1962, the beloved man, Peter Lacy, Bacon. Almost a decade has lasted a stormy affair Bacon and Dyer. Artist often vyzvolyat a friend of dubious situations. In addition, Dyer suffered from paranoia, alcoholism and depression. In autumn 1971, during a visit to Paris in connection with a retrospective exhibition of Bacon in the Grand Palais, he committed suicide in a hotel room.

The figure of George Dyer was the subject of the most famous masterpieces of Bacon. In memory of him a piercing «Black triptychs», which are considered the top of the artist. With regard to «Etude head of George Dyer», he said Chief Specialist of Contemporary Art Sotheby's Oliver Barker, «this picture is worthy to stand in line with the famous work of Picasso's" Weeping Woman "as one of the most outstanding examples of what can reach art portrait ».

«Etude head of George Dyer» was written on the photo of John Dikina made in the late 1940's. Bacon and Dikin were Tradititional visitors Colony Room club in Soho, where the photographer has made numerous portraits of friends and convive artist. Many photos Dikina as the basis for the portraits of famous representatives of the London Bohemia, created Bacon. According to the artist, it was much easier to write portraits from memory, with a visual support only photos.

In 2009, will mark the 100 anniversary of the birth of the artist. In this case, the Tate Gallery of London is preparing a large retrospective, which can be seen and «Etude head of George Dyer». Later the exhibition moves to the Prado Museum (Madrid) and the Museum of Modern Art (New York). «Etude head of George Dyer» recent exhibit Francis Bacon: Portraits and Heads of the National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, Scotland (where he decorated the cover of the exhibition catalog), and A Guest of Honour: Francis Bacon und sein Unkreis Museum of Contemporary Art in Leipzig.

Before the July sales work can be seen in the gallery at Sotheby's New Bond Street.

Source: http://www.artdaily.org