Francis Bacon triptych fetches 24.3 mn pounds at London sale

LONDON

A triptych by British painter Francis Bacon of one of his muses sold for 24.3 million pounds (27.9 million euros) at an auction in London on Oct. 14.

Entitled “Three studies for Portrait of Henrietta Moraes,” it is composed of three small canvases roughly 35 cm by 30 cm.
It served as studies for a portrait of Henrietta Moraes.

Until now, the studies were owned by the William S. Paley Foundation, of the U.S. businessman who founded the CBS television network.

The 1963 work was estimated at 30 million pounds.

Bacon’s execution “has a power, a quality, a confidence that it has rarely surpassed in this format,” auctioneers Sotheby’s, which organized the sale, said.

Other works, by Jean Dubuffet, Andy Warhol, David Hockney or Gerhard Richter, were also put on sale Friday by Sotheby’s in London.

Another triptych by Bacon, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” sold for $142.4 million in 2013 at Christie’s in New York, ranking it among the 10 paintings having reached the highest prices. raised at auction.

Last June, a portrait of Lucian Freud by Bacon sold in London for more than 43.3 million pounds.