Francis Bacon, ‘Pope with Owls’, circa 1958. Estimate: $35-45 Million. Image courtesy of Phillips.

NEW YORK, NY.- On 17 November, Phillips will offer Francis Bacon’s ‘Pope with Owls’ as the star lot of the New York Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art. Executed circa 1958, the work arrives for the first time at auction with an estimate of $35-45 million, having been held in the same prestigious private American collection for nearly four decades.

Jean-Paul Engelen, Deputy Chairman and Worldwide Co-Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, said, “We are thrilled to present ‘Pope with Owls’ as the highlight of the fall season at Phillips. In the late 1950s, Bacon spent a great deal of time in Tangiers, an exotic escape from conservative London for artists, writers and adventurers. For Bacon, it was a period of great inspiration and creativity. His longest stay in Morocco – fourteen months – was filled with incredible high and lows and it was during this time that the present Pope painting was created. An exceptional example from the artist’s most iconic series, the work elevates Bacon, rightfully placing him among the greatest names in the art historical canon.”

Forming part of Francis Bacon’s celebrated papal portrait series which spanned over two decades, ‘Pope with Owls’ is positioned at a critical juncture in the evolution of the artist’s interrogations into one of the most recognizable subjects in his oeuvre. The work takes as its reference the canonical portrait of Pope Innocent X by Diego Velázquez, an image which acted as a touchstone for the artist’s explorations into the rendering of flesh and psychological deconstruction between 1949 and 1971. The Papal paintings have gained art historical significance not only for Bacon’s masterful execution but also for their subversion of the old master source.

Extending from the darker papal paintings of the 1950s, ‘Pope with Owls’ acts as a crucial step in the development of Bacon’s engagement with the subject, with his iterations on the subject becoming increasingly disfigured over the course of the 1950s. Not only does the work still engender the haunting agony of his the “Popes” from his first impulses engaging with the subject matter, it also moves towards the violently brilliant scarlet palette and full-length figure which would go on to define his “Popes” of 1961 through the subsequent decade.