Francis Bacon: the Papal Portraits of 1953

This series of eight papal portraits, painted during a period of just a few weeks in the summer of 1953, was brought together for the first time by noted Bacon scholar Hugh M. Davies for a 1999 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, along with several other works from the same period, including Sphinx I and two Study after Vel zquez paintings from 1950. This book includes an essay by Davies, discussing the artist´s influences and sources of imagery for the series, and a previously unpublished interview that Davies conducted with Bacon in 1973.