Francis Bacon English, born Ireland, 1909–1992
Figure with Meat
1954
Francis Bacon's 'Figure with Meat' (1954) belongs to Bacon's 'Screaming Popes' series, pairing a seated figure in the pose of Velázquez's 'Portrait of Innocent X' with two hanging sides of beef behind him. The sharp psychological distortion and the slaughterhouse motif, absorbed from Soutine, turn the ecclesiastical portrait into one of the most visceral images of postwar European painting. It hangs at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Exhibition Venue
Image source: Art Institute of Chicago