Francis Bacon 1000 Word Write Up

Painting 1946

The first thing I noticed about Francis Bacon’s “Painting 1946” was what appeared to me to be a headless groom. I wondered what flower is in his jacket and what would that flower represent? There is a black umbrella over the headless and it appears to be slightly disproportional, the left side is slightly smaller and unless unlike the true shape of an umbrella than the right side is. In the play Our Town that my Play Production class just put on last week we gave umbrellas to the dead characters to hold over themselves to separate them from the living and also to keep them shrouded in mystery. The skeleton in the back of the painting is also intriguing because it is far too big to be a human skeleton but I’m not sure what it could be. There is some sort of black cloud hovering near the “groom”. There is also a piece of meat and more bones, what look like a rib cage, in the front of the painting. The back wall seems to have a downward pointed arrow painted on it. The groom and the skeleton are in what looks like a weight height cage, or the skeleton/frame of a spiral stair case or scaffolding of some sort because of the silver “bar” going horizontally through the middle of the painting. There is some sort of patterned carpet going through the bottom of the “cage”. On the back wall on the left there seems to be a hanging flower or even a shade pull, or tassel or some sort, painted green, parallel to that on the opposite side of the skeleton is the same thing painted in blood red. On the top of the painting on the back wall there is some sort of white garland draping down behind the skeleton. On the left shoulder blade of the skeleton it is painted white, where as the other side doesn’t have that, and there is a bone jutting right out from the white, as if a bird of some kind was painted in the shoulder blade. On the right shoulder blade there is a much smaller bone jutting out.

Three Studies for a Crucifixion 1962
The First

This painting seems to be focused around the two shadowy figures in the center. What I found odd about these two was how they resembled clowns. Also Bacon has a habit of using bright vibrant colors in his paintings, which is a little strange because his style tends to be a little odd and queer and somewhat scary, he often time includes death distorted bodies in his paintings. In this painting he used a lot of bright red, bright orange, and then black. I was wondering what each of these colors usually symbolize or mean individually. What I thought was kind of funny was how these three colors are usually associated together on Halloween and then the figures in the painting looked like clowns. Then on the bottom of the picture, allowing him to keep true to his personal style are what appear to be two dead dogs’ bodies, or maybe an awkwardly positioned human body.

The Second

The second of these paintings is probably my favorite of the three, I have no idea why. The first thing I noticed about this one is the flower, or tassel thing, I referred to in my description of Painting 1946 was included in the back ground of this painting as well, this time painted black. There is what appears to be blood dripping from the ceiling onto the already dead body. Why would he paint more blood dripping onto the corpse? Then there is the obvious thing to notice; the distorted dead body curled up on the bed in the center of the painting. Why would the body be so distorted in such an awkward position? Why was it on a bed? Toward the bottom of the body on the left there is a white streak that looks like a snake. This made me wonder what do snakes represent? In the upper middle of the painting there is what look likes a human skull that seems to have decomposed somewhat, but it still has its teeth, and I found this odd. On the bottom right of the bed there is what looks like a decapitated duck’s head. Then there is a fold in the blanket, or towel, laid out on the bed, that looks like a woman’s breast. Finally among the blood dripping from the ceiling, right above the bed, there is a white orb. Now Wiccans and other religions interested in spirits believed that spirit takes the form of an orb of light. I just thought that was an interesting connection to make to this particular orb seeing as we’re dealing with a painting of a dead body.

The Third

What I first noticed about this painting was at the bottom of the painting there a black shadowy figure, which I found pretty creepy. Then there is what looks like a distorted body on display, in some sort of glass cage or some sort, like it were at a museum, which may be a metaphor for Bacon himself may feel; like a dead body on display because his personal feelings and thoughts, his life or what’s left of it, is actually on display in a museum for the entire world to see. Also it looks like the body was put into the cage upside down and that all the fluids that were in it were allowed to bleed and run out into the bottom of the cage. There is some kind of bone that make a circle, like some kind of guard or railing even, around the cage. Then on the left side of the body there is what resembles the head of a snake, or some other kind of reptile, like in The Second of these three paintings. I also found it very interesting that Bacon pretty used the same three colors all three of these paintings.