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FRANCIS BACON
Triptych
.
Color aquatint and etching on Guarro paper, 1981. 385x295 mm; 15
1
/
4
x11
5
/
8
inches, full
margins. Signed and numbered 87/99 in pencil, lower margin. Printed and published by
Ediciones Polígrafa, Barcelona. A superb impression with strong colors.
This mysterious triptych, one of the last in a series of triptychs that Bacon painted following
the suicide of his long-time companion, George Dyer, in 1971 (Dyer killed himself in the
Paris hotel room where he and Bacon were staying on the eve of the opening of a landmark
retrospective of Bacon’s work at the Grand Palais), is believed to represent Dyer struggling
on a beach.
Bacon’s oil triptych, on which the aquatints were based, was sold at Christie’s, London,
February 6, 2008, to a private collector.
The left panel of the same-titled, three-part work painted by Bacon from 1974 to 1977.
Sabatier 4 (left panel) (see also next lot).
[8,000/12,000]