Francis Bacon: Reinventing realism

Sebastian Smee | Gagosian Quarterly | 10th May 2026

A backgrounder on three late Bacon paintings. Toward the end of his life Bacon lived for a decade in Paris finding its atmosphere “lighter” than London. That resonated with an awareness as he aged that “nine-tenths of everything is inessential.“ At the same time he was trying to simplify his art while still capturing the grandeur of form in Michelangelo’s nudes. Most of all, Bacon sought the same intensity he saw in Ingres’ portraits, “to combine beauty with that same level of urgency.”