Francis Bacon: Paris, Monaco and the Cote d'Azur

British painter Francis Bacon (1909–92) was one of the most important artists of the last half of the twentieth century, his grotesque, abstract figures instantly recognizable, and wholly unforgettable. Though he was a familiar figure in the rackety corners of London’s Soho, Bacon also had deep personal and artistic ties to France and Monaco, and this book is the first to explore those at length.

The relationship began in Paris in 1927, where a teenaged Bacon saw an exhibition dedicated to Picasso—and saw his future vocation. Soon after World War II, Bacon moved to Monaco, where he lived until 1950, and began to paint the “popes” series, which would transform his art, and make his reputation. On visits to Paris, meanwhile, he made friends with such prominent figures as Alberto Giacometti and Michael Leiris; the city would go on to be the setting for the exhibition that marked his arrival as a master, a retrospective at the Grand Palais in 1971. And after 1975, Bacon kept a studio in the Marais district of Paris.

​This richly illustrated bilingual volume draws links from all these periods to Bacon’s art, showing how the experiences and milieu of Paris and Monaco made its presence felt in his work and helping establish him as not simply a British painter, but part of a larger European artistic and cultural world.