Francis Bacon is considered one of the most extraordinary painters of the twentieth century. Known mainly as a figurative artist, Bacon transcends the appearance of his subjects thanks to the uniqueness of the method with which he applies and works the pictorial technique. The exhibition “Francis
Bacon: human presence “explores his intense relationship with the complexity of portraiture in a path that highlights his reinterpretation of past artists and large triptychs in memory of his disappeared lovers. The exhibition exhibits about thirty works from work from European and overseas private and public collections, flanked by photographs of the artist. The paintings of the late 1940s open the exhibition and then developed until his late period ending with an unfinished painting made shortly before his death and found on the easel in his studio. The creative path of this revolutionary artist is reconstructed In five thematic sections (the form of portraits – beyond the form – paintings inspired by the masters – self -portraits – friends and lovers) through which Bacon’s creative path is highlighted in facing traditional portraiture challenging it. Youth works show characters who express their suffering screaming. This is a period in which Bacon draws inspiration from the post -war world. The exhibition opens with a selection of his first paintings such as Head VI (head
VI, 1949) and Study of the Human Head (study of a man’s head, 1953), representations of anonymous male figures. These two images respect the conventions of a formal portrait. The models occupy three quarters of the traditional format and stand out on a dark background. In Head there the individual is imprisoned in a transparent cage, while in Study of a man’s head the protagonist observes us through bands, evoking radiographies that reveal the skull and teeth of the model in a disconcerting way. Revisited by Bacon, who upsets tradition, in his first paintings powerful and famous men appear totally destabilized. Even if Bacon had no way to see the original works of Vélasquez -Papa 
Innocent X (1649-1650) or Van Gogh -the painter on the way to Tarascona (1888), they however become a great source of inspiration for him. From these two paintings he takes on loan and reinventing various elements, inspired by a large amount of reproductions, some detached from books or newspaper articles: a mass of torn cards, all scattered on the floor of his study. This challenge is imposed to pay homage to the portrait and in the
same time by questioning it. His interest in Van Gogh pushes him to move away from gloomy and monochromatic iconography and thanks to him Bacon opts for the introduction of color, which will characterize his future work. In the mid -1950s Bacon stops portraying screaming figures, but continues to create ambiguous and disturbing images. By choosing, for the first time, to paint from a live model, he creates the portraits of his patrons and collectors Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, as well as her friend, the artist Lucian Freud. Both of these representations appear in the Oltre The form section. Bacon, however, does not appreciate the painting according to the model, find this reductive approach. While appreciating the immediacy in the application of the pictorial matter, Bacon begins to move more and more from the painting produced in the studio using a live model, preferring rather to draw inspiration from photographs or draw on memory. In
This way has the freedom to dispose of its subjects as desired and protecting its models from possible damage caused by its interpretation. Bacon is fascinated by a model of the poet’s mask and artist William Blake dated 1823, purchased at the National Portrait Gallery shop and donated him; Hence the choice to paint a portrait inspired by this ancient object. Another master revered by Bacon is Rembrandt; He admires him for his “anti-illustrative” style (Bacon’s statement). This artist’s word can be interpreted as “anti-physicia”. During his stay in France, Bacon studies Rembrandt brush strokes for his self -portrait with cap (1659). Several reproductions of this portrait are present in his London study. In the section paintings inspired by the masters, Rembrandt with cap, oil on table 1659, on loan from the Granet Museum of Aix-en-Provence, to remember how much this self-portrait influenced and inspires the bacon self-portraits, capable of expressing a similarity by exploiting the dough of the pictorial matter, is therefore exhibited. This work by Rembrandt can be considered a fundamental prerequisite for Bacon’s self -portraits. Like Rembrandt, Bacon dedicated himself throughout the 
His life as a painter to the self -portrait, painting his face more than fifty times during his career, ranging from small format heads to the full -figure representation made on large triplets. Bacon is also portrayed by other artists, in particular by photographers for whom he posed during his career. To document this report, photos and videos made by famous photographers of the twentieth century are exhibited on display, such as Cecil Beaton, Arnold Newman, Bill Brandt and Mayotte Magnus. Bacon creates some of his most touching and introspective self -portraits shortly after the death of his loved ones. When his partner of almost his whole life, Peter Lacy, dies in 1962, Bacon reacts by creating a small triptych of portraits in memory of their relationship. Ten years later, Bacon loses his lover George Dyer, whose presence was recurring in many paintings. Dyer’s disappearance gives rise to a remarkable group of self -portraits including that of 1973, which express his pain and isolation, opening his way to face his death. In the 60s Bacon work saw the production of more personal portraits that see him concentrated on a more accurate selection of his models. The paintings of the friends and lovers of the artist who inspired him during his life are at the center of the Francis Bacon exhibition: Presence Humaine. Transcending the similarity, the portraits of Bacon depict some of his most intimate contacts, such as his partner Peter Lacy, his lover George Dyer, his partner of the last twenty years, John Edwards; Her friend Henrietta Moraes, Muriel Belcher founder of the Colony Club, (a private club for artists located in Soho) and her friends and colleagues including Lucian Freud and Isabel Rawsthorne. These groups of portraits shed light on Bacon’s biography: his sociability and on his tumultuous relationships, but also his sensitivity exacerbated up to despair, suffering and pain. Bacon chooses not to paint according to living models, he admits that he is unable to do it, except for people known very well, whose portraits are more intimate and personal despite their distortion. The artist prefers to work on photographs, sometimes torn and crumpled, received by the former photographer of Vogue, John Deakin, a selection of which is presented on display. So he writes Rosie Broadley, curator of the exhibition and head of the 20th century collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London: “The portrait dominates the work of Francis Bacon, who totally engages to demonstrate, beyond all expectations, where he can bring such an intense, even extreme exploration. For Bacon, portraiture is a fundamental genre, capable of expressing the depth of the soul. “ The exhibition of the Gianadda Fondation, created in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery in London, is unique in its kind: it presents the work of one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, deeply engaged in the art of the portrait, in a path that combines paintings and photographs in a completely new reading of its work. (Antoinette De Wolff- Giannada Foundation).
Carlo Franza