On view in the Francis Bacon display cases.
During his visits to the South of France and to Spain, Francis Bacon would have had the opportunity of encountering the bullfight first hand. A significant number of loose leaves, books and postcards on bullfighting were found among the items in Francis Bacon’s studio including three copies of The Swords of Spain by Robert Daley. In the endpapers of one of these copies, Bacon wrote as an aide-memoire in the process of painting ‘14 July 1968 Studies from the Human Body and The Bullfight.’ In 1969 Bacon painted Study for Bullfight No. 1 and Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1. Two years previously Bacon had included a bullfight in his painting Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne Standing in a Street in Soho. On view in the display cases of the Francis Bacon Studio from 21 September 2010.
