Three Studies of Isabel Rawsthorne (on a light background) 1965

Francis Bacon captured Isabel Rawsthorne here, in a set of three oil paintings, on what looks like a very light, possibly white, ground. You can see the act of painting itself, the brushstrokes swirling and pushing around, as if Bacon was wrestling with the very idea of capturing a person on canvas. I can almost see Bacon stepping back, squinting, then lunging forward with his brush, trying to pin down some essential truth about Rawsthorne. What was she like? What did he think of her? Look at that fleshy pink he uses, and the way he smears and drags it across the surface. It’s like he’s trying to peel back the layers of her face, to reveal something raw and vulnerable beneath. It’s a visceral, almost violent act of painting. Bacon is in conversation with artists of the past, like Rembrandt and Velázquez, but he’s also pushing the boundaries of portraiture, asking what it means to capture a likeness in paint. It's never fixed. It's like a strange and beautiful dance of perception.