in many ways it can be considered as an extension of themes explored in his early-1970s Black Triptychs. It may be more symmetrically refined, and not as raw and has smoother edges, while it places the figures more centrally; previous triptychs typically positioned the figures unequally, typically slightly towards the edge so as to unnerve the viewer. The three panels share a cool, light-brown surface, while the figures are unusually diminished in size. Before this work his heads had been characterised by broad, almost wanton, brushstrokes. There were even instances, notably in his mid-1960s portraits of Lucian Freud, where the whole head was depicted with a single stroke. In the 1985 triptych he abandons that approach, building the self-portraits from tight and very fine brush strokes. Instead Bacon chooses to focus on disintegration; the skulls are blood-spattered, with bone and blood flying out of them. Study for a Self-Portrait continues a painterly motif that Bacon began early in his career: a spatially uniform and simple background (although the back line is curved in the centre panel, a device generally only seen in much later work). Here, the figures are held together by pairs of vertical blinds in the background of each frame. In contrast to most of Bacon's work, this background references contemporary art, drawing on the stillness of Barnett Newman's Voice (1950), while the elegance of the figures echoes Henri Matisse's Music. While Bacon's earlier work often hid the figures behind veils or other concealing devices, the 1985 triptych leaves nothing hidden. His mid-career reduced portraits of friends to broad brush strokes cast with an almost drunken abandon, but the 1985 triptych is precise and reduced. In this respect, the triptych can be read as the artist retreating into the academic finesse against which he once raged. The technique also evokes the background details of his seminal early-1970s Black Triptych series. References Sources Farr, Dennis; Peppiatt, Michael; Yard, Sally. Francis Bacon: A Retrospective, 1999. Harry N Abrams. Peppiatt, Michael. Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996. Schmied, Wieland. Francis Bacon: Commitment and Conflict. Munich: Prestel, 1996. Sylvester, David. The Brutality of Fact: Interviews With Francis Bacon. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987. Sylvester, David. Looking back at Francis Bacon. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000. Zweite, Armin (ed). The Violence of the Real. London: Thames and Hudson, 2006. External links 1996 Daily Telegraph article Paintings by Francis