After the Central Panel of the Triptych Three Studies for a Portrait of Peter Beard (1975) by Francis Bacon isolates a single head under extreme pressure — the face both present and dissolving, caught between recognition and erasure.

Peter Beard was an American photographer, diarist and adventurer, best known for his work documenting wildlife and ecological destruction in Africa, particularly in Kenya where he lived for extended periods at his Hog Ranch property. His diaries — dense collages of photographs, drawings, blood and found material — were as much artworks as documents.

Beard moved in overlapping circles of art, fashion and celebrity from the 1960s onwards, connecting figures like Andy Warhol, Truman Capote and the Rolling Stones. He met Bacon in London and New York and the two developed a close friendship rooted in shared appetites — for risk, excess, and a certain confrontational engagement with mortality.

For Bacon, Beard was a compelling subject precisely because his face carried the evidence of a life lived at extremes. Bacon's portraits of those closest to him were never about likeness — they were about pressure, about what the face reveals when conventional representation breaks down. Beard's physical presence, weathered and intense, gave Bacon material he returned to repeatedly across the mid-1970s triptychs.

By the mid-1970s, Bacon had moved toward isolating the figure within shallow, undefined spaces. This removes any stable setting and intensifies focus on the face, which is held between recognition and distortion. The image is not fixed but appears in flux, reflecting his ongoing aim to capture sensation rather than likeness.

Relying on photographic sources to create his works from—often studio shots or found images—Bacon would manipulate the images onto canvas to create a sense of a memory and a distortion of reality into a more feeling state. Working closely with printers such as Aldo Crommelynck, Bacon was able to extend his painterly language into print.

Within the frame, but unresolved, there is a sense of tension, perhaps that felt by the artist himself, that defines Bacon’s approach to the human image. For more information or to buy After the Central Panel of the Triptych Three Studies for a Portrait of Peter Beard, contact our gallery using the enquiry button above.
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