Portrail of Francis Bacon, 3
'The Wall'

34" wide x 42" high
Charcoal on museumboard
Private collection, St. Louis
Image copyright © 2003 - Scattergood-Moore

press image for detail

 

Stains on Old Walls, by Leonardo da Vinci

". . . if you look at walls covered with many stains . . . with the idea of imagining some scene, you will see in it a similarity to landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, tree, plains, broad vallerys, and hills of all kinds. You may also see in it battles and figures with lively gestures and strange faces and costumes and an infinity of things which you can reduce to separate and complex forms. And with these walls . . . it is as with the sound of bells; in their ringing you may find all the sounds and words that you wish to imagine."

1492, Ashbumham I (22v) Institut de France, Paris

"Scattergood-Moore's charcoal Portrait of Francis Bacon offers a fragmentary vision of the British painter who himself most dramatically fragmented the human figure in our time. And without aping Bacon's own signature style. Here Bacon is reduced to a large staring, off-centered eye; the rest of his face fades away into the murky ground, with only its outlines visible. The artist draws a square frame around the portrait referring to the glass "boxes" Bacon often places his own portraits in like specimens in a bell jar"

from a review by:   David Bonetti  The Boston Phoinix

 

next image

up button