The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation takes part in the exhibition ‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’, at the National Portrait Gallery, London

The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation is a major lender of photography for this Francis Bacon exhibition, currently presented at the National Portrait Gallery, in London, until 19 January 2025. On that occasion, our institution lent a series of rare photographs of Francis Bacon including two unique portraits of the British painter, taken by Helmar Lerski and Francis Julian Gutmann.

Featuring more than 55 works from the 1950s onwards, this exhibition will explore Francis Bacon’s deep connection to portraiture and how he challenged traditional definitions of the genre.

From his responses to portraiture by earlier artists, to large-scale paintings memorialising lost lovers, works from private and public collections will showcase Bacon’s life story. Accompanied by the artist’s self-portraits, sitters include Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne and lovers Peter Lacy and George Dyer.