Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion is a 1944 triptych painted by the Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon. The canvasses are based on the Eumenides—or Furies—of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, and depict three writhing anthropomorphic creatures set against a flat burnt orange background. It was executed in oil paint and pastel on Sundeala fibre board and completed within two weeks.

About Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion in brief

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion is a 1944 triptych painted by the Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon. The canvasses are based on the Eumenides—or Furies—of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, and depict three writhing anthropomorphic creatures set against a flat burnt orange background. It was executed in oil paint and pastel on Sundeala fibre board and completed within two weeks. Bacon did not realise his original intention to paint a large crucifixion scene and place the figures at the foot of the cross. When the painting was first exhibited in 1945 it caused a sensation and established him as one of the foremost post-war painters. The Three Studies are generally considered Bacon’s first mature piece; he regarded his works before the triptyCh as irrelevant. Bacon was emphatic that no pre-1944 images be admitted into his canon, and insisted to his death that no paintings pre-dating 1944 should feature in a retrospective. The early publications of John Russell and David Sylvester agreed with this position, and most early art critics agreed with Bacon’s position. The painting was executed on lightSundeala boards, a material at the time used as an inexpensive alternative to canvas. Each bears a single tautural form against a harsh orange background, which resulted in varying levels of absorption into the oil, due in part to the low level of paint, which led to the different tones of the figures. It is Bacon’s only painting of the Cruc crucifixion, which he first painted in 1933, and is considered to be one of his most significant works to date.

The three Studies were painted over the course of two weeks in 1944, when, Bacon recalled, ‘I was in a bad mood of drinking, and I did it under tremendous hangovers and drink; I sometimes hardly knew what I was doing. I think perhaps the drink helped me to be a bit freer’ Bacon was a late starter. He painted sporadically and without commitment during the late 1920s and early 1930s, when he worked as an interior decorator and designer of furniture and rugs. He later admitted that his career was delayed because he had spent so long looking for a subject that would sustain his interest. Although he had been painting for almost twenty years, Bacon steadfastly insisted that Three Studies was the fons et origo of his career. He was often harshly self-critical during this period, and would abandon or destroy canvasses before they were completed. He abandoned the CruCifixion theme, then largely withdrew from painting in frustration, instead immersing himself in love affairs, drinking and gambling. He continued to incorporate the spatial device he was to use many times throughout his career—three lines radiating from this central figure, which was first seen in Cruc crucion, 1933. It was Bacon’s studio by day; at night, abetted by Eric Hall and Bacon’s childhood nanny Jessie Lightfoot, it functioned as an illicit casino.

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