Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon Paintings: The eight most scandalous
The explosive synergy between Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud has made their unconventional 'bromance' one of the most critiqued of all twentieth-century relationships.
Innovative talents working in Post-War London, Bacon and Freud spearheaded a movement championing figurative representation when abstraction was the pervading fashion.
While their painterly style differs dramatically, their obsession with visceral, raw image-making that distorted the human form unites them as one in the popular imagination.
Ahead of the Freud and Bacon exhibition at Tate Britain, we round up the eight most controversial Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon paintings.
Friends, rivals, and finally enemies: it's Bacon vs Freud. Who wins?
This 'sexually charged' nude is one of the most provocative works in Bacon's oeuvre. Recently sold at Christie's after 30 years in the same private collection, Portrait of Henrietta Moraes explodes with erotic overtones.
Frances Outred, Christie's head of postwar and contemporary art, Europe, said: 'the carefully constructed mood through colour is forcefully invaded by the extraordinary swipes of the loaded brush, which create the woman's voluptuous figure. This juxtaposition of the sheer beauty of colour with the brutal physicality of paint is what makes Bacon's art so remarkable.'
Selling for £21M, Henrietta sure caught somebody's eye!
