Object number1955.6.2

Study for Portrait, IV

Date1953

Artist Francis Bacon (English, 1909-1992)

CultureEnglish

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsFramed: 67 5/8 x 53 1/2 x 2 5/8 in. (171.77 x 135.89 x 6.67 cm)
Unframed: 60 x 45 3/4 in. (152.4 x 116.21 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd (Blanchette Hooker, class of 1931)

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Painting

BibliographySpender, Stephen, English Artists versus English Painting, "Art News," LII, no. 7, part 1 (November, 1953), p. 14, illus. "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," The Art Quarterly, XIX (Spring, 1956), 78 and fig. 1; "College Acquisitions," College Art Journal, XV (Summer, 1956), 363 and illus. p. 363 Alley, Ronald. Francis Bacon. London: Tate Gallery, 1962, no. 26; Preston, Stuart. "The Sincerest Flattery," Show, II (May, 1962), 99 illus. p. 94; Rotherstein, John and Ronald Alley. Francis Bacon. London, 1964, p. 73, no. 62 and illus. Warner, Malcolm and Robyn Asleson. Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney. New haven, CT: yale University Press, 2001. p 238-240, fig. 74; Davies, Hugh M. Francis Bacon: The Papal Portraits of 1953. San Diego, CA: The Museum of Centemporary Art, San Diego, 2001. repr. 42; Mundy, James, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center: Vassar College The History and Collection (New York: Prestel Publishing, 2007), p. 131, p. 130 repr. "Study for Portrait I-VIII: The Series." ArtStories ^ Mia. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Spring 2015. Web. repr.Sotheby's, Sotheby's London Contemporary Art Evening Sale 1st July 2015 (London: Sotheby's, 2015), p.129, repr. ProvenanceThe artist;
Durlacher Brothers, New York City, 1953;
Sold to Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III (Blanchette Hooker), 1953;
Gift to Vassar College Art Gallery, 1955

Vassar Exhibitions

Second Sight: Originality, Duplicity, and the Object

Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, Durlacher Brothers, October - November, 1953;

San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, "Painting and Sculpture from the Collection of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III," July 1 - August 7, 1960;

Williamstown, MA, Williams College Museum of Art, "Williams / Vassar Exchange," February 28 - March 18, 1966;

Albany, NY, Albany Institute of Art, November 5 - December 9, 1968;

New Paltz, NY, SUNY, "Portraits and Self Portraits," October 8 - 23, 1970;

Northampton, MA, Smith College Museum of Art, June 20, 1991 - May 6, 1993 (extended loan);

New York, NY, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, "Highlights from the Vassar College Collection," July 13 - September 11, 1993;

La Jolla, California, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, "Francis Bacon: The Papal Portraits of 1953," January 17-March 28, 1999;

New Haven, Connecticut, Yale Center for British Art, "Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney," September 26 - December 30, 2001; San Marino, CA, Huntington Art Gallery, February 3 - May 5, 2002;

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY SECOND SIGHT: Originality, Duplicity, and the Object January 14-April 10, 2005;

New York, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective" May 18- August 16 2009;

Tokyo, Japan, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, "Francis Bacon" February 26 - May 26, 2013; Toyota, Japan, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, June 4 - September 1, 2013;

Prague, Czech Republic, Prague Castle Riding School, "Fragments of Memory, The Treasury of St. Vitus Cathedral in the Mirror of Contemporary Art," March 27 - July 26, 2026

Label TextThroughout his career, Bacon steadfastly focused his painting on the human figure. While extending the timeless traditions of figuration, he invented startling new ways of portraying people as he distorted his subjects in order to tap into the emotional power of portraiture. This painting is one of eight papal portraits that comprise the series Study for Portrait I – VIII, the longest of Bacon’s career, made during a period of a few weeks in the summer of 1953. The series was inspired by Diego Velázquez’s extraordinarily lifelike Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650). Haunted and obsessed by the image, Bacon purchased numerous photographs of the painting and began to create painted studies of it, changing it slightly each time. He deliberately based his paintings on half-tone mechanical reproductions rather than the original. He sought to reinvent Velázquez’s masterpiece by transforming the confident leader into a grotesque figure. Bacon’s unflattering depiction of the powerful yet unscrupulous Innocent X can be seen as a show of disdain of patriarchal power.

Terms

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu