From 1928 to 1930, a very young Francis Bacon worked in London, Paris and Berlin, designing interiors and pieces of furniture.
I found a picture of his interior work – just one picture, and what a thrill to see it. When he was 19, his studio in South Kensington was featured in an interiors magazine in a piece entitled “The 1930 Look in British Decoration” – article recently posted in the Telegraph.
He was only 19 years old! Can you see how the shapes in the interior design are similar to the shapes that would later be in his paintings?
First Paintings… I Mean Rugs
Have you ever seen early Francis Bacon paintings? The awkward in-between steps in artistic skill and style that every artist has to take when they are becoming themselves? What did Bacon paint before he was when he was Francis Bacon? You probably haven’t seen his early works, because as soon as Bacon found his style he destroyed them all. …Well, almost all of them. He left these rugs, and a watercolor. Rugs. Yes, rugs. When Bacon was an interior designer, he had a few rugs made. Though he wanted to destroy them like his other earlier work, his clients begged him not to. Like a thief who was vain enough to leave a clue, these rugs show us a piece of the artist he was before he was Francis Bacon.
He should have destroyed them so I couldn’t be reposting them now. Here they are, rugs designed by Francis Bacon.
Evidently Bacon was influenced by other designers at the time, though he neglected to give them credit. Take a look at this comparison of rugs posted by Mariano Akerman.
First Known Painting
Below, Watercolour (1929), is Francis Bacon’s earliest surviving painting. It appears to have evolved from rug designs, with cubism stirred in. (Cubism began in 1907, and had matured by 1918.)
Here’s another painting from 1929-1930. This one has a door! Doors would become a common theme in Francis Bacon’s later paintings. Clearly he hasn’t quite figured out how to paint yet, but it’s there. You can see it coming. Isn’t that exciting?
There it is. The inception of Bacon. What do you think?
Before all those orange artworks, I was posting about Figure in Interior; the most unusual art class I’ve ever been a part of. I talked about Cezanne, and how making small marks distributed around the page (thank you to Fran O’Neill) can be a way to integrate time and change within a drawing. My premise …
Last week Nikki Barber and I surprised my drawing classes with an unexpected session of printmaking. After a few weeks of drawing practice, Beginning and Figure Drawing students made monotypes for the first time, and LOVED IT. Yesterday I posted still life monoprints by the beginning drawing students. Today are figurative monoprints by the figure …
Raphael Soyer (December 25, 1899 – November 4, 1987) was a Russian-born American painter, draftsman, and printmaker. He is identified as a Social Realist because of his interest in men and women viewed in contemporary settings which included the streets, subways, salons and artists’ studios of New York City. He also wrote several books on his life and art. He was adamant in his …
I have been sharing some of Carlos San Millan’s favorite painters, and we are nearly to the end of his list. So far I’ve posted Kim Frohsin, Mitchell Johnson, Yann Kebbi, Марина Цветаева (Marina Tsvetyeva), Sangram Majumdar, and Bato Dugarzhapov. Today is an artist who has distilled her painting all the way to the surface of the canvas. When done well, …
Francis Bacon was an Interior Designer
The 1930 Look in British Decoration
From 1928 to 1930, a very young Francis Bacon worked in London, Paris and Berlin, designing interiors and pieces of furniture.
I found a picture of his interior work – just one picture, and what a thrill to see it. When he was 19, his studio in South Kensington was featured in an interiors magazine in a piece entitled “The 1930 Look in British Decoration” – article recently posted in the Telegraph.
First Paintings… I Mean Rugs
Have you ever seen early Francis Bacon paintings? The awkward in-between steps in artistic skill and style that every artist has to take when they are becoming themselves? What did Bacon paint before he was when he was Francis Bacon? You probably haven’t seen his early works, because as soon as Bacon found his style he destroyed them all. …Well, almost all of them. He left these rugs, and a watercolor. Rugs. Yes, rugs. When Bacon was an interior designer, he had a few rugs made. Though he wanted to destroy them like his other earlier work, his clients begged him not to. Like a thief who was vain enough to leave a clue, these rugs show us a piece of the artist he was before he was Francis Bacon.
He should have destroyed them so I couldn’t be reposting them now. Here they are, rugs designed by Francis Bacon.
Evidently Bacon was influenced by other designers at the time, though he neglected to give them credit. Take a look at this comparison of rugs posted by Mariano Akerman.
First Known Painting
Below, Watercolour (1929), is Francis Bacon’s earliest surviving painting. It appears to have evolved from rug designs, with cubism stirred in. (Cubism began in 1907, and had matured by 1918.)
Here’s another painting from 1929-1930. This one has a door! Doors would become a common theme in Francis Bacon’s later paintings. Clearly he hasn’t quite figured out how to paint yet, but it’s there. You can see it coming. Isn’t that exciting?
There it is. The inception of Bacon. What do you think?
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