Three Studies of Lucian Freud

Francis Bacon created this monumental triptych in 1969, capturing his close friend and artistic rival Lucian Freud across three nearly six-foot panels. Working from photographs by John Deakin, Bacon rendered Freud seated on a wooden chair, his form distorted and fragmented against ochre backgrounds. Rather than literal likeness, each study captures psychological essence.

Bacon and Freud met in 1944 and became inseparable during the 1950s and 60s, spending most evenings together at Soho drinking establishments like the Colony Room. They painted each other repeatedly, their relationship described as equal parts admiration and unrelenting criticism. The friendship ended bitterly in the mid-1980s when they fell out over personal differences.

The triptych format was central to Bacon's practice. He believed multiple panels prevented what he called forced narrative interpretation, allowing images to exist in sequence without storytelling. In November 2013, the work sold at Christie's New York for $142.4 million, setting the auction record at that time. Collector Elaine Wynn later bequeathed it to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.