Francis Bacon's Portraits

[Eric Roberts]

5 hours ago, Light-of-Truth said:

Thank you!! Pretty much answered my question and more!!

That's why we see similar images done over time. Same pin pricked images were what artists and "graphic designers" worked with 400 years ago and I couldn't grasp how they did what they did. Fascinating!!!

Explains so many engravings, sometimes reversed. I pictured engravers using a printed page and carving a new engraving by tracing an image. Yet they all are different on some level.

If we want to know Bacon, Elizabeth, and anyone else back then we need to understand as much as possible about their lives and how they lived. We see paintings that survive today, knowing that some artist, usually well-known, painted it. We see variations that are similar, copied and even painted by the same artist. It has been a question in my mind for many years how they did it.

Now days we take a photo, and can even work with it to create versions. In the time of "Shakespeare" we had no cameras. Yet we had artists and "graphic designers. "

I wonder if we as humans live long enough, if our graphic design images today will end up on some beautiful gallery someday? 😉

One of my college projects for Adobe Illustrator 20 some years ago:

It's on Google and has been stolen numerous times. But I have the original file and can make into a highway billboard, and even bigger. LOL

 

 

Love the idea of a giant billboard!!! Needs a caption, though - or a thought bubble. Why don't we move it to the anti-stratfordian cartoon competition topic and invite suggestions? No prizes - only fun...

Edited April 12, 2022 by Eric Roberts
typo

[Eric Roberts]

My suggestion (addressed to Shaksper):

“Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell”

(Othello, Act 4, Sc. 2)

 

 

[A Phoenix]

Fascinating thanks Eric and Rob just love this image♥️♥️

[Eric Roberts]

23 hours ago, Light-of-Truth said:

Thank you!! Pretty much answered my question and more!!

That's why we see similar images done over time. Same pin pricked images were what artists and "graphic designers" worked with 400 years ago and I couldn't grasp how they did what they did. Fascinating!!!

Explains so many engravings, sometimes reversed. I pictured engravers using a printed page and carving a new engraving by tracing an image. Yet they all are different on some level.

If we want to know Bacon, Elizabeth, and anyone else back then we need to understand as much as possible about their lives and how they lived. We see paintings that survive today, knowing that some artist, usually well-known, painted it. We see variations that are similar, copied and even painted by the same artist. It has been a question in my mind for many years how they did it.

Now days we take a photo, and can even work with it to create versions. In the time of "Shakespeare" we had no cameras. Yet we had artists and "graphic designers. "

I wonder if we as humans live long enough, if our graphic design images today will end up on some beautiful gallery someday? 😉

One of my college projects for Adobe Illustrator 20 some years ago:

It's on Google and has been stolen numerous times. But I have the original file and can make into a highway billboard, and even bigger. LOL

 

I didn't mean to be flippant - this is a very powerful piece of graphic design. And this entire website truly deserves an international design award. I can't believe how much attention to detail has gone into its construction. Everything works beautifully. Thank you Rob. You're a genius!

[Light-of-Truth]

I didn't take your reply as flippant at all. And laughed at, “Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell” .

🙂

Busy day today, but might start a "Billboard" thread for fun at some point. Great idea!

[Eric Roberts]

Brief Update: Missing FB Portrait, Possibly by Van Somer

1. Emailed Bendor Grosvenor who is an expert in 16^th & 17^th Century portraits and a group leader on the Art UK website. Sent him the attachment below asking for any advice about how to trace Ella Horsey’s picture.

2. Emailed the Findhorn Foundation on their Isle of Erraid website to request a photo of a portrait of Ella Horsey. She wrote a book about her experiences on Erraid called “Seven Years on a Scottish Islet” published in 1967 about her life as a reclusive writer on the island from 1952 – 1959 when she was in her seventies. She also wrote another book titled “A Chant of Pleasant Exploration” (1962) about living with the grief of losing loved ones.

3. Have tried to access her will and probate records on Gov.UK without success. Nothing comes up. I have written to archivists for assistance in locating her files.

LOST PORTRAIT OF SIR FRANCIS BACON BY PAUL VAN SOMER I.pdf

Edited April 14, 2022 by Eric Roberts
typo

[Light-of-Truth]

Thank you Eric!

Eventually maybe we'll collect all this B'Hive and 400 years of other information and someone who can write will produce a scholarly article. Maybe we should reach out to PHD majors who are doing there own research to get their degree?

We have and own the "Bacon" Truth, but money and popularity we do miss out on.

"No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of Truth."

Keeps me going...

[Eric Roberts]

21 hours ago, Light-of-Truth said:

Thank you Eric!

Eventually maybe we'll collect all this B'Hive and 400 years of other information and someone who can write will produce a scholarly article. Maybe we should reach out to PHD majors who are doing there own research to get their degree?

We have and own the "Bacon" Truth, but money and popularity we do miss out on.

"No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of Truth."

Keeps me going...

Were he still of this world, Sir Francis would compose a most elegant and meaningful letter of thanks to you both.

[Light-of-Truth]

Quote

Were he still of this world, Sir Francis would compose a most elegant and meaningful letter of thanks to you both.

He just did through you! 😉

 

[Eric Roberts]

Still in search of the lost portrait of Sir Francis by Paul van Somer which once belonged to author, Baconian and psychic, Ella Horsey. No reply as yet from either Gov.UK regarding her will and probate documents or from Art.UK's senior art detective, Bendor Grosvenor. Meanwhile, I'm reading one of her two books - "A Chant of Pleasant Exploration" (1962) in which she elaborates on her discovery of the portrait. See earlier post. She mentions that the portrait "is one of my most precious possessions" which suggests that she would have retained it until she died in 1982. Today, I found a review of the book I'm reading in Baconiana No. 163, 1963. It mentions that she had a copy of the van Somer portrait made which she donated to the Francis Bacon Society. The copy, either a photograph or an oil painting, was on display in the office of the FBS at Canonbury Tower in Islington. This is odd because according to Wikipedia, the Society's occupancy at Canonbury ended in 1940. The book review written in 1963 (see below) states that the Society was still there over twenty years later. 

I wonder if Ella Horsey, who was born in Islington in 1885 and lived there until she was in her mid-teens, was aware that Francis Bacon held the lease of Canonbury between 1616-1625 and that very probably he was responsible for planting the ancient mulberry tree that still survives in the hidden courtyard.

https://www.moruslondinium.org/research/canonbury-heritage-mulberry

I also wonder where the reproduction of Ella's purportedly original van Somer portrait of Francis is today... the FBS archives would seem the best bet, but where are they located? Not in the Senate House Library apparently. Does anyone know the current whereabouts of the Society's famous collection of books, MS and artefacts? Please help if you can. 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Eric Roberts
typo

[A Phoenix]

Hi Eric, if you haven't already, it might be worth contacting Susan Mcilory at FBS.

[Eric Roberts]

I was wrong. The FBS archive is housed in the Senate House Library after all:

https://encore.libraries.london.ac.uk/iii/encore/search/C__SFrancis Bacon society__Orightresult__X0?lang=eng&suite=cobalt

No sign of the copy of the picture by van Somer I'm looking for, but I did find a better image of the Senate House portrait on the Art.UK site.

[Eric Roberts]

[Light-of-Truth]

I wonder why the secrecy. It should be publicly celebrated along with Bacon's other portraits.

We know the Folger Shakespeare Library has some secrets. Hmm...

😉

 

[Light-of-Truth]

Here is a link to the 1949 Baconiana with the Portrait article:

https://sirbacon.org/archives/baconiana/1949_Baconiana_No 131.pdf

This is one wonderful collection of Baconiana, I'll say that! Some cool synchronicity for this morning as well.

[Eric Roberts]

Provenance of an Unknown Portrait - redacted copy.pdf

[Light-of-Truth]

Have to rekindle an old thread, but I have a question for you Eric...(or anyone else who has an answer)

I'm working on a quick fun graphic for another post and needed to pen-tool a standing Bacon to paste into an image and Photoshop to make it look right. I first went to the High Resolution portraits of Bacon we put up a few months ago which is one of the most important additions to SirBacon.org ever. Your gallery Eric is a true Baconian Treasure for all Baconians to enjoy. We had to make special programming rules to incorporate the file size of these images for the amazing collection you acquired and even paid for to be displayed. THANK YOU!!!!!!

https://sirbacon.org/francis-bacons-portraits-from-life/

If you just read this latest post and have not explored these images which are not legally not available anywhere else on the internet today for free at the resolutions we put up. Click on an image in the Francis Bacon Portraits Gallery and zoom in to 100%. See the detail. Imagine being the artist studying Bacon's face, his eyes, expressions to paint these paintings. Being a photographer can be very exciting. But can you even imagine Francis Bacon sitting or standing in front of you while you sketch a loose pencil frame.

"Hey, Francis, can you bring your left shoulder up a bit, and your face, be who you are, the rightful heir to be King of England, and I want to see a glimmer of your secret Shakespeare theater project."

My plan was to cut out a standing Bacon and reduce it by many times to end up small, maybe enhance it a bit. In no way would it take away from the original on SirBacon.org and I'd link to the original anyway (as opposed to Wiki, etc.).

Then I noticed, of all these paintings, Bacon's FEET are not shown. Yet sculptures have roses on his feet, at least enough that I was hoping to clip a painting with roses on his feet.

I never noticed. Is there no painting of Bacon's feet while he was alive?

What about Elizabeth? Were her feet hidden? (I have not looked yet, trying to work on another post.)

Were feet off-limits? I can imagine that maybe they were in those days. Some Shakespeare character must have had stinky feet or they could not smell very well in those days. OMG, the streets must have been "ripe" for we today!

And, DeVere did leave a memorable impression on everybody in the room when he passed his historic fart in front of the Queen.

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

?

See below, NO FEET.

[Eric Roberts]

I so appreciate your kind words about the portrait gallery. It was a collaboration. Without your skills and enthusiasm there would be nothing to show. Thanks to Lawrence also. I'm so glad it found the right home and is fulfilling its purpose.

I don't think there is anything sinister or significant in the fact that there are no contemporary paintings showing SFB's feet, only posthumous portraits. I must admit it had never occurred to me until you pointed this out. 

After a quick search online I found these six full-length portraits from the period in which the subject's feet are exposed.

Also attached is a note on shoes in the Elizabethan era.  

[A Phoenix]

Hi Eric,

I have just come across some information that I was not previously aware of relating to works that apparently contain unknown or unfamiliar images of the Great One in Francis Bacon A Bibliography of his Works and of Baconiana to the year 1750 SUPPLEMENT (Privately issued, 1959): 

1] Simon Goulart, The Wise vieillard or an old man, translated out of French into English by an obscure Englishman (London: John Dawson, 1621) that 'contains a portrait of of a bearded man seated at a table closely resembling Bacon', (Gibson no, 411). A transcribed reproduction of the work is available on the Internet (see link below) but this does not reproduce the above mentioned portrait.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A01992.0001.001?view=toc

2] Robert Johnson, A Letter from Mr. Robert Johnson, one of the elders at Edenborough, directed to Master William Agard at Cambridge (London: 1642) 'Woodcut Portrait of Bacon on titlepage' (Gibson, no. 452).

I have not been able to trace this on the internet.

As this is your area of expertise I thought it might be of some interest.🙂👍

The Phoenixes.

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by A Phoenix

[Light-of-Truth]

Is thsi the image:

https://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/detail/FOLGERCM1~6~6~968718~166787?qvq=w4s%3A%2Fwho%2FT.%2BW.%2C%2Bobscure%2BEnglishman.&mi=1&trs=2

[Allisnum2er]

Wow ! Did you notice the frontispiece ?

https://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/detail/FOLGERCM1~6~6~968682~166786?qvq=w4s%3A%2Fwho%2FT.%2BW.%2C%2Bobscure%2BEnglishman.&mi=0&trs=2

[Light-of-Truth]

I didn't look close enough to see the child feeding!

[Allisnum2er]

The image of "the bearded man seated at a table" reminds me the 7th emblem in the Book "The Mirror of Majesty" (1618).

https://archive.org/details/mirrorofmaiestie00hggoiala/page/12/mode/2up

[Light-of-Truth]

2 minutes ago, Allisnum2er said:

The image of "the bearded man seated at a table" reminds me the 7th emblem in the Book "The Mirror of Majesty" (1618).

https://archive.org/details/mirrorofmaiestie00hggoiala/page/12/mode/2up

 

Quite the similarities for sure! 😉

 

[A Phoenix]

Good afternoon High Wizard of B'Hive-a treble WOW!