Francis Bacon Head III, 1949 (£5-7 million). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: IT MADE £10,442,500.
The first work Francis Bacon ever sold, from the legendary first commercial show at the Hanover Gallery in Mayfair in 1949, comes up at Sotheby’s in London on June 26. Head III 1949 is now estimated at £5-7 million. In 1949 it cost £150. Bacon’s three studies of Isabel Rawsthorne dating from 1966 are estimated at £10-15 million. The sale of 69 works with a combined estimate of more than £66 million features a strong selection of Post-War European masters and major British names.
Highlights include David Hockney’s paean to his home country, Double East Yorkshire and Bridget Riley’s powerful op art masterpiece of 1964, Stretch. The cover lot of the auction is the most important collection of Andreas Gursky “Stock Exchange” photographs in private or public hands, part of his iconic series of trading floor studies.
UPDATE: The auction realized £75.8 million, with an average lot value of £1.43 million – one of the highest figures for this category in London. Francis Bacon’s 1966 triptych portrait of his friend, muse and lover Isabel Rawsthorne sold for £11,282,500.