Francis Bacon

Catalogue entry

T07385

Ink on white wove paper
253 x 190 (10 x 7 7/16)
Watermarked ‘Telelinen | BRITISH MADE | NO 1 MILL’ upside down across centre

Purchased from Paul Danquah and Peter Pollock with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Art Collections Fund and a group of anonymous donors in memory of Mario Tazzoli, 1998

Provenance:
Acquired from the artist (by 1961)

Exhibited:
Francis Bacon: Working on Paper, Tate Gallery, London, February-April 1999 (38, reproduced in colour)

Cross-legged Figure with Arms Raised, no.2 shows a figure assuming the same pose explored in the immediately preceding sheet (T07384) from the ‘Telelinen’ sketchpad. Differences lie in the change of medium, the ink drawing here being traced in pencil on the other page, and in the slight modification of the position which result from the loose elaboration of the pose. It seems that, just as with the colour studies Reclining Figure, no.1 and Reclining Figure no.2 (T07353 and T07354), Bacon was searching through these variations for a resolved composition, although there is no evidence of an extant canvas. The reverse of this sheet bears an unrelated outline of a head, the abbreviated form of which may be compared to Alberto Giacometti’s contemporary sculptures.

Note: This is one of the sheets from a sketchpad showing perforations along the left hand side and watermarked ‘Telelinen’; general issues relating to their creation and preservation are discussed in the entry on Man on a Bed (T07381).

Matthew Gale
February 1999

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