Francis Bacon: Human Presence at National Portrait Gallery London

The National Portrait Gallery in London has opened a major retrospective of Francis Bacon's portraits, titled 'Francis Bacon: Human Presence'. Curated by Rosie Broadley, the exhibition runs until January 19, 2025, and features over 50 works from private and public collections worldwide. It explores Bacon's responses to earlier artists' portraits, large-scale paintings commemorating lost lovers, and his close relationships with figures such as Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne, and lovers Peter Lacy and George Dyer. Bacon preferred to paint from photographs, using the medium to distance himself from his subjects—only people he knew intimately—to avoid unwanted distortion. The exhibition includes photographs commissioned from former Vogue photographer John Deakin.