Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane is delighted to announce a display of material relating to Lucian Freud drawn from Francis Bacon’s archive and studio which is located in the Gallery.  The significance of this exhibition is that items on display relate  to the recently auctioned painting at Christie’s, New York of ‘Three Studies of Lucian Freud 1969’ by Francis Bacon.  The painting sold last night at a record price of $142.4m, – €104m.

The material, relating to the triptych, (three paintings in one), includes a heavily manipulated photograph of Lucian Freud seated on a bed.  This photograph taken by John Deakin in the 1960’s, is manipulated by Bacon in advance of painting. The photograph is deliberately torn with the corner folded, so that Freud’s left leg is obscured. The fold is fixed with paper clips as was a practice of Bacon’s and the paint marks on the photograph indicate that Bacon consulted the photograph during the painting process.

“Lucian Freud was a significant figure in Francis Bacon’s life during the 1950s and 60s and he is the subject of some of Bacon’s most memorable paintings. We are very fortunate to have the archive of Francis Bacon in the Hugh Lane as it is a unique resource which relates directly to his artworks and adds an immense amount of information on Francis Bacon and his art” says Barbara Dawson, director.

Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud were friends in the 1950s and 60s and over 60 images of Lucian Freud were discovered in Francis Bacon’s Studio which is now located in Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. A display of images of Lucian Freud including photographs by John Deakin commissioned by Francis Bacon will go on exhibition in the Gallery on 14 November 2013.