Man with Dog

Man with dog
	Francis Bacon , 1953
	Oil on canvas
	152.1 x 116.8 cm
	Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Link to the picture; (please note copyrights )

Man with Dog is an oil painting created by Francis Bacon in 1953 with the dimensions 152.1 × 116.8 cm.

description

In the example of Man with Dog from 1953, Bacon depicts the animal with its companion, or rather its leg silhouette, in a nocturnal street scene. A leash, formed by small white dots, connects the two figures and gives the impression that it is the dog and its owner . The dog is modeled by white and blue brush marks, which underline the dynamic movement of its gait. The aligned diagonal that forms the picture space emphasizes this additionally. His companion can only be made out up to his thighs through a black area, which, due to the blurred painting style, also reminds of shadow forms.

reception

The entire depiction appears vague and nebulous due to the fleeting and diffuse painting style and the night scenery. In addition to the spatial structure, the figures are also not fully characterizable and comprehensible and the question of which of the figures has stepped into the room like a shadow remains unanswered.

In his work, Francis Bacon dedicates himself to the motif of the dog. The interest in this subject goes back in particular to the work of the photographer Eadweard Muybridge , whose studies and movement sequences Bacon had seen in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. In addition to Muybridge's work The Human and Animal Locomotion from 1887, it is Giacomo Balla's Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash from 1912 that can be seen as the source of inspiration for Bacon's Man with Dog .

Individual evidence

↑ Gamper, Verena: The ambivalent function of the shadow . In: Seipel, Wilfried (et al.) (Ed.): Francis Bacon and the picture tradition . Vienna (inter alia) 2004. pp. 301–309.
^ Francis Bacon. A retrospective . Exhibition catalog, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven. ed. by Elaine Stainton. New York 1999.
↑ Peppiatt, Michael: Francis Bacon. Anatomy of the riddle. Cologne 2000. p. 150.
^ Eadweard Muybridge. The Human and Animal Locomotion Photographs . Cologne 2010.
↑ Davies, Hugh M .: Francis Bacon. The Early and Middle Years, 1928-1958 . New York, London 1978. p. 147.

[1] Gamper, Verena: The ambivalent function of the shadow . In: Seipel, Wilfried (et al.) (Ed.): Francis Bacon and the picture tradition . Vienna (inter alia) 2004. pp. 301–309.

[2] Francis Bacon. A retrospective . Exhibition catalog, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven. ed. by Elaine Stainton. New York 1999.

[3] Peppiatt, Michael: Francis Bacon. Anatomy of the riddle. Cologne 2000. p. 150.

[4] Eadweard Muybridge. The Human and Animal Locomotion Photographs . Cologne 2010.

[5] Davies, Hugh M .: Francis Bacon. The Early and Middle Years, 1928-1958 . New York, London 1978. p. 147.