Portrait of Lucian Freud on orange couch 1965

Francis Bacon painted this portrait of Lucian Freud using oil on canvas. Bacon's approach is all about the gesture, that urgent smear of paint to capture a feeling. There’s this amazing contrast between the fleshy, almost raw handling of Freud's face and the smoother, more graphic quality of the orange couch. The color here, especially that orange, is so visceral; it almost feels like you could taste it. Look at the way Bacon's handled the hand touching the face – it's like he's collapsing the space between them, smudging the boundary. The intensity is incredible. You know, this reminds me a bit of the way Marlene Dumas works with portraits, that same interest in the psychological weight of the figure. Ultimately, with Bacon, it's about seeing how much a painting can hold, all the tension and beauty wrapped up together.