Three Studies for Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne (on a dark background) 1965

Francis Bacon made these three oil studies of Isabel Rawsthorne on canvas, though the exact date is unknown. Bacon's application of paint is visceral, a kind of raw handling we don't often see in portraiture. Instead of blending and smoothing, he deploys thick impasto, the strokes sometimes blurred or scraped, as if he’s wrestling with the image. Notice the dark ground, typical of Bacon, against which the crimson and white hues of Rawsthorne’s face explode. This energetic application feels almost violent, certainly anxious. Traditionally, the techniques of oil painting involved a slow, deliberate application of glazes. But Bacon dispenses with such niceties. He seems to have been less interested in a polished outcome than in the very act of painting, in the aggressive and dynamic way he could manipulate the oil paint. In the end, it is this emphasis on the material, the way it is applied, and the emotion it conveys, that elevates these studies beyond mere portraiture, inviting us to think about what paint itself can express.