Figure in a Landscape, by Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon (1909-92) was an artist whose work was not easy to like or to understand. He belonged to the Expressionist tradition, for which the purpose of art is not to depict the outside world but interior emotions, particularly those of fear, violence and alienation. His work was also heavily influenced by Surrealism, such that images of objects or faces are placed in “impossible” conjunction with each other.

Bacon was self-taught, relying on intuition as his master. His work was therefore highly original and distinctive, although disturbing and shocking to the viewer. Many of his best works were a response to the horrors of the mid-20th century, in which his figures are isolated in a terrifying, hostile environment. His canvases portray the frustration and brutality that afflicts the individual in a world that is increasingly difficult to cope with.

“Figure in a Landscape” dates from 1945, the year which marks Bacon’s rebirth as an artist. He had virtually given up painting in 1934, having been discouraged by his lack of commercial success, but felt inspired to release his angst with a series of paintings that attracted widespread notice and notoriety.

The figure is that of his friend Eric Hall (taken from a photograph), sitting the wrong way round on a seat in Hyde Park. However, this is not a portrait in the usual sense, because the figure has no head. The left side of the body is also missing, being replaced by a black hole in the shape of the man’s shoulders, which doubles as a tunnel in the sheer cliff behind the figure. The cliff is, not surprisingly, purely imaginary as there is no such feature in Hyde Park!

There are many other disturbing features in this painting, such as the man’s right leg that fades away into nothing, and his left leg which appears to have been consumed by maggots or beetles that stream away to the edge of the canvas.

It is not easy to work out what is happening on the right-hand side of the canvas, but it looks as though some sort of firearm has emerged from the tunnel, which is also the left half of the man, and it is being fired off to the right.

There is a bright blue sky at the top of the painting, above the cliff, but the rest is grey, black and brown. This is therefore a sinister, disturbing image, in which a man is being consumed by the landscape and taking part in the destruction that emerges from it.

Bacon painted this work during the last months of the Second World War, when Europe was being liberated and the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis were being brought to light. Bacon could have expressed hope for the future, but instead chose to portray the degeneracy at the heart of humanity that could allow such terrible things to happen.

It is an intensely depressing painting, but at the same time very powerful. Artists need to produce images of blackness and despair, for the simple reason that, if people do not understand the consequences of what they do, they are highly likely to go on doing the same things. Although one may find “Figure in a Landscape” nasty and repulsive, it is important that such works exist and can be seen. Only by looking at the dark side of the imagination can the viewer resolve to reject the impulses that lead human beings to make a reality of horrors such as this.

“Figure in a Landscape” can be seen at Tate Modern, London.

© John Welford