Francis Bacon's Study For A Head sells at auction for £39 million

Making money: Study For A Head sold for more than double its estimate
PA

A Francis Bacon painting considered one of his most important left in private hands has sold at auction for more than $50 million (£39 million), Sotheby’s said.

Study For A Head, from Bacon’s “screaming popes” series, was estimated to fetch between 20 to 30 million US dollars when it went under the hammer in New York on Thursday.

The painting had remained in the collection of Richard E Lang and Jane Lang Davis since 1975 and had only been exhibited in public once before now in its 57-year history, Sotheby’s said.

The work, which depicts a screaming man, is one of six from the collection which was inspired by Diego Velázquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X. These six pieces helped to establish Bacon’s reputation in the 1950s.

The other five artworks can be found at Tate Britain and the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven.

According to Sotheby's, Study For A Head is Bacon confronting his father, who banished him from the family home after catching him wearing his mother's underwear.

Bacon’s works attract some of the biggest prices for any early 20th century artist — a work of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud was sold for $142m (£89m) in 2013, a record at the time.

Born in Ireland, Bacon took up painting in his 20s, and went on to become one of the most influential painters of his time. He's best known for his experimental, emotionally charged works.

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