Francis Bacon’s painting gains a record price

A painting by Francis Bacon of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud has become the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction after it fetched US $142m in New York. The Triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969), is considered one of Bacon's greatest masterpieces. The price eclipsed the $119.9m (£74m) paid for Edvard Munch's The Scream last year. It was the first time Three Studies of Lucian Freud had been offered at auction and bidding opened at US $80m. The presale estimate was US $85m. The auction house did not disclose the identity of the buyer. Bacon, known for his triptychs, painted Three Studies of Lucian Freud in 1969 at London's Royal College of Art, after his studio was destroyed in a fire. Three Studies of Lucian Freud: Three Studies of Lucian Freud is a 1969 oil-on-canvas triptych by the British painter Francis Bacon, depicting Bacon's friend and rival artist Lucian Freud. All three panels, in Bacon's typical abstract, distorted, isolated style, show Freud sitting on a cane-bottomed wooden chair within a cage, on a curved mottled-brown surface with a solid orange background. Behind each figure is a headboard of a bed, originating in a set of photographs of Freud by John Deakin which Bacon used as a reference. It is the second of two full-length triptychs of Freud by Bacon; the first one, created in 1966, has not been seen since 1992. Lucian Michael Freud: Lucian Michael Freud was a German-born British painter, known chiefly for his thickly impastoed portrait and figure paintings, widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time. His works are noted for their psychological penetration, and for their often discomforting examination of the relationship between artist and model. Francis Bacon: Francis Bacon was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon began painting during his early 20s and worked only sporadically until his mid-30s. His painterly but abstracted figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds. Unsure of his ability as a painter, he drifted and earned his living as an interior decorator and designer of furniture and rugs. Later, he admitted that his career was delayed because he had spent too long looking for a subject that would sustain his interest. His breakthrough came with the 1944 triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion which sealed his reputation as a uniquely bleak chronicler of the human condition.

What: Francis Bacon’s painting gains a record price When: November 12, 2013 Where: New York