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Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon

Artist (1925 - 2014)
Date1980
MediumPhotograph
Dimensions10" x 14"
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineCollection and image © Hugh Lane Gallery Donated by Jane Bown Estate, 2023 © Jane Bown Estate
Object number2184
DescriptionJane Bown, a renowned photographer, was born in 1925 in Dorset, England. She studied at the Guildford School of Art in the late 1940s and received her first commission from The Observer newspaper in 1949. Bown became known for her portraits, usually photographed in black and white and using the available light. An intuitive photographer, she worked quickly and with minimal equipment, enabling her to capture the spontaneity of her sitter. Her subjects include Bertrand Russell, Samuel Beckett, Bette Davis, Lucian Freud, Björk. She photographed Francis Bacon in 1980 to accompany an interview in The Observer by Miriam Gross. She also photographed Bacon’s companion John Edwards. Bacon used one of her Bown’s portraits of him at the door to 7 Reece Mews as the frontispiece to his 1985 Tate Gallery retrospective exhibition catalogue.
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