Francis Bacon’s final Pope painting comes to light after 45 years: A Francis Bacon painting valued at \u00a360m is to be seen in public for the first time for 45 years when it goes under the hammer next month.<\/p>\n
His Study of Red Pope 1962, 2nd Version 1971 was the last in the artist’s famous series of papal portraits.<\/p>\n
It was exhibited in Paris in 1971, six months after it was painted, and then in Dusseldorf the following year.<\/p>\n
It has been in the hands of a private European collector since 1973 but will be auctioned by Christie’s in October.<\/p>\n
For the painting, Bacon revisited Study of Red Pope 1962, which was itself inspired by Diego Vel\u00e1zquez’s 1650 masterpiece Portrait of Pope Innocent X.<\/p>\n
For the revised version, Bacon added another figure – a reflection of the artist’s partner George Dyer.<\/p>\n
Less than two days before Bacon’s Paris retrospective opened in 1971, Dyer took his own life.<\/p>\n
Francis Outred, Christie’s head of post-war and contemporary art, said the painting was “quite simply art history”.<\/p>\n
He said: “It is a tragic premonition which unites Bacon’s two greatest muses, the Pope and George Dyer, for the first and only time.”<\/p>\n
It will be auctioned on 6 October and will be on view at Christie’s in London from 30 September.<\/p>\n
The record price paid for a Bacon at auction was $142m (\u00a389m) for a triptych depicting of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud, which was sold in 2013.<\/p>\n
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