Join us for a lecture led by Carol Jacobi, as she outlines the representation of women throughout Francis Bacon’s portraiture.
Bacon’s famous portraits began with an off-hand request to Henrietta Moraes, "I’ve decided to paint a few of my friends." For 30 years he concentrated on a handful of people he loved. Intimacy was essential to Bacon’s redefinition of portraiture, painting and the human condition. He challenged the sexual conventions of his time and the complexity of his relationships inform our appreciation of his paintings of men. His portraits of women, however, even iconic works such as Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe and Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne Standing in a Street in Soho, have been seen through surprisingly simple conventions of the femme fatale. Join Carol Jacobi to unmask the myths of Henrietta Moraes and Isabel Rawsthorne, to meet two extraordinary people and look again at a few of the nearly 40 paintings Bacon made of them.
This lecture is held as part of the public programme for the major new exhibition Francis Bacon: Human Presence. The exhibition, which features works from the 1950s onwards, explores Francis Bacon’s deep connection to portraiture and how he challenged traditional definitions of the genre.
Dr Carol Jacobi is a curator of British Art at Tate Britain. She has lectured and published on Rawsthorne, Giacometti, Bacon and their circle for several decades. Recent displays include Alberto Giacometti and Isabel Rawsthorne, a conversation (Tate Britain 2022). Publications include Out of the Cage: The Art of Isabel Rawsthorne (2021), and essays in Derain, Balthus, Giacometti, Une amitié artistique (2017), Francis Bacon: Paris, Monaco and the Cote d'Azur (2016), British Art in the Nuclear Age (2014) and Alberto Giacometti: Die Frau auf dem Wagen, Triumph und Tod (2010).
£10 (£8 Members / concessions)
