2006

Created in the immediate aftermath of World War II, Painting is an olique but damning image of an anonymous public figure. Half-obscured by an umbrella, he is dressed in a dark formal suit—the unofficial uniform of British politicians of the day—punctuated by an incongruously bright yellow boutonnière. But his deathly complexion and toothy grimace suggest a deep brutality beneath his proper exterior. The sense of menace is accentuated by glaring colors and the cow carcasses suspended in a cruciform behind him, a motif drawn from Bacon's childhood fascination with butcher shops, but also a possible reference to Old Master treatments of the same subject.