Prints & Editions
17 works
Francis Bacon Triptych, March 1974 - centre panel, 1978 For Sale
Francis Bacon
Triptych, March 1974 - centre panel, 1978, 1978
Offset lithograph on Wove paper Signed and numbered
31 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. 80 x 60.3 cm.
About this work
Francis Bacon’s Triptych March 1974 is a haunting meditation on the instability of the human form, the fragility of identity, and the unease of existence. In the attached panel, a central figure emerges as a distorted, near-abstract body suspended in flux. Neither fully present nor fully dissolving, it appears to melt into the surrounding space, its amorphous mass of ghostly blues and pinks evoking both flesh and shadow. The image captures Bacon’s relentless fascination with the human condition—its impermanence, its distortions, and its collapse into ambiguity.The structure of the composition heightens this disquiet. A stark contrast divides the scene: the heavy black of the background presses against the pale foreground, as if trapping the figure between opposing voids. A thin horizontal line bisects the canvas, suggesting a barrier or threshold—between interior and exterior, conscious and unconscious, or even life and death. Suspended above, a solitary lightbulb dangles, casting its faint, clinical glow. A recurring motif in Bacon’s work, the bulb here underscores the sterile atmosphere, amplifying the sense of isolation and existential despair.Colour and form work in tandem to evoke vulnerability. The distorted flesh tones are tender and unsettling, collapsing into formlessness against the surrounding void. Blurred contours and twisted outlines give the impression of motion, as though the figure is caught mid-metamorphosis—an image of life constantly slipping away from stability. In this work, Bacon fuses distortion with raw emotional charge, presenting the body as both fragile matter and existential metaphor. Triptych March 1974 stands as a powerful expression of his preoccupation with suffering, solitude, and the fleeting nature of human existence.
Price on Application
Auction History
Triptyque Août 1972 · Francis Bacon · Christie's · 2026-02 · $33,020
Portrait of a Dwarf · Francis Bacon · Sotheby's · 2025-10 · $23,632,180
”Portrait of George Dyer Riding a Bicycle 1966” (Small) · Francis Bacon · Grisebach · 2025-09 · $3,428
Three studies for a Self-Portrait · Francis Bacon · Christie's · 2025-09 · $32,160
Figure Writing Reflected in a Mirror · Francis Bacon · Christie's · 2025-09 · $16,080
Related Reading
More series by Francis Bacon
About the Edition of 150 Series
Francis Bacon's Edition of 150 represents a significant body of work from one of the 20th century's most influential figurative painters. This series showcases Bacon's distinctive approach to the human form, employing his characteristic distortion and gestural brushwork to evoke psychological intensity and raw emotion.
The collection includes iconic pieces such as Triptych, March 1974 – Centre Panel from 1978, exemplifying Bacon's mastery of oil on canvas. Working during a period of artistic maturity, Bacon synthesised decades of experimentation with classical art history, photography, and cinema to create profoundly unsettling yet compelling compositions.
Bacon's works command substantial collector interest, with prices reflecting his critical importance and sustained museum acquisitions. The Edition of 150 offers access to seminal examples of his practice, demonstrating his technical virtuosity and conceptual sophistication.
Each work carries provenance significance and investment potential within the contemporary art market. Collectors seeking authentic examples of postwar abstraction and figurative innovation will find substantial value in this series.
Enquire for availability and detailed provenance documentation.
About Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon (1909–1992) is among the most important figurative painters of the twentieth century, an artist whose raw, visceral canvases locate the human body in conditions of extreme psychological tension and transform painterly convention into a vehicle for existential confrontation. Born in Dublin to English parents, Bacon was largely self-taught — he received no formal art education and came to painting in his late twenties after years of drifting through London and Europe. His breakthrough came with the 1944 triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, which shocked a wartime London audience with its images of distorted, screaming hybrid creatures and established his reputation as an artist of unsettling and uncompromising vision.
Bacon's mature practice was built around a small number of recurrent subjects and formal devices. His Screaming Popes — a long series of works derived from Velázquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X — dissolve the authority of the Renaissance original into images of anguish and constraint, the figure screaming behind glass or pinned within a geometric cage. His portraits of his intimate circle — Lucian Freud, George Dyer, Isabel Rawsthorne, Peter Lacy — are among the most psychologically penetrating likenesses in the history of art, the faces smeared and turned and displaced in ways that feel both violently distorted and deeply faithful to the sitter's interior life. His self-portraits are equally compulsive: self-scrutiny carried to the point of self-laceration. Through all these works runs a consistent formal vocabulary: figures isolated in shallow, airless spaces; geometric frameworks of lines and bars that imprison or frame; meat-like surfaces of dragged and flung paint; glass and velvet chosen as ground materials to intensify the sense of both exposure and entrapment.
Bacon's market stands among the highest of any twentieth-century figurative artist. Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969) achieved $142,400,000 at Christie's New York in 2013 — the world auction record at the time — while Triptych, 1976 reached $86,000,000 at Sotheby's New York in 2014, and Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus (1981) achieved $84,600,000 at Sotheby's in 2020. Works on paper, prints, lithographs, and screenprints derived from his iconic paintings represent more accessible entry points to his market and are actively sought by collectors worldwide.
Bacon's work is held at Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Centre Pompidou, the Museo Nacional del Prado, and Museum Ludwig, among other major institutions globally.
Guy Hepner offers expert guidance on Francis Bacon prints, editions, and works on paper from our gallery at 177 Tenth Avenue, New York. Given the seriousness of the Bacon market and the importance of authentication, we approach every transaction with the utmost rigour. We offer free, confidential valuations for works in private collections and connections to qualified buyers worldwide.