Three Studies for Self-Portrait (1979)

[4] As with most of his mid-period portrait work, Bacon seeks to convey the brutality and impact of life on his sitters by the application of broad and thick brush strokes which serve to severely distort the subject's face.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where the triptych is kept, this focus "allows only for ruminations on the face itself – its ravages, its deep psychological depths, and the sense of turning around it slowly, going from one frame to the next, as if in a languorous panning shot.

"[1] The triptych also differs from his usual work with its deep black backgrounds, which further serve to empathise the viewers eye of the sitter's facial features and its delicately rendered complexions.

[6] The paintings were first exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery in 1980, and acquired by Russian-born Mexican film producer Jacques Gelman and his wife Natasha.

[3] An edition of 150 colour lithographs was published by Éditions de la Différence [fr] in Paris in 1981, printed by Arts Litho and signed in pencil by the artist.