SOTHEBY'S | EXPERT VOICES
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| Francis Bacon's "POPE" (1958); oil on canvas; 77 1/8 by 55 7/8 in. |
In 1952, Francis Bacon found love. He would spend the next decade in a tumultuous relationship with the English pilot Peter Lacy, making frequent and extended trips to visit his lover in Tangier, Morocco. During these stays, Bacon produced a series of paintings reflecting his tortured affair, including the intensely emotional
Pope. In this episode of Expert Voices, Head of Contemporary Art Grégoire Billault examines Bacon wrestling with his most iconic subject matter in a crucial stage of artistic development. Just one of six surviving canvases the artist painted in Tangier, this masterpiece has remained in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum for nearly forty years and will be a highlight of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction. (14 November | New York) [
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