FRANCIS BACON

An appropriately hefty biography of the mercurial artist.

In this exhaustively researched, well-rounded profile, which took a decade to complete, Stevens and Swan, the Pulitzer-winning authors of de Kooning: An American Master (2004), make one of the few attempts to give a holistic account of the iconic Bacon (1909-1992). While the artist’s friend Michael Peppiatt offered an intimate first-person account in Francis Bacon in Your Blood (2015), this is a forensic, sweeping text from two acclaimed art critics, based on hundreds of interviews. The authors skimp neither on context nor on details regarding Bacon’s friends and lovers, and they are unafraid to dig into the more volatile elements of his character. Lucian Freud, note the authors, “called him the most fearless man he had ever met.” Presented in a linear fashion, the narrative lends a picaresque feel to Bacon’s sometimes tragic, often dandyish life. While his habit of wandering among the pubs of London's Soho is well known, many readers will be particularly enlightened by the chapters about his childhood among the Anglo-Irish gentry, born an outsider in a house dominated by a chauvinistic father during the eruption of the Troubles. The book, featuring photos throughout, also functions as a dynamic depiction of life as a gay man in Europe during the 20th century, constantly reminding readers of the specter of violence that haunted the LGBTQ+ community for decades. Furthermore, the authors’ analyses of individual paintings, mostly free of unnecessarily technical language, are insightful. “Like Aeschylus,” they write, “Bacon hoped to capture the inexpressible” and “reach some deeper, more visceral nerve.” Resisting attempts at biography, Bacon once “remarked that it would take a Proust” to do him justice. Hyperbole, to be sure, but Stevens and Swan are up to the task of demonstrating the many complexities of an intense, significant artistic life.

An unflinching portrayal of an often unwieldy character—further proof of Bacon’s enduring influence.