Bacon and Rodin: A Dialogue in Flesh and Bronze | Sotheby's
94Step into the worlds of Francis Bacon and Auguste Rodin, two artists whose visions reshaped our understanding of the human condition. Their works, though separated by time and medium, share a profound fascination with emotion, vulnerability, and the physicality of existence.
Executed in Paris in 1975, Francis Bacon’s Portrait of a Dwarf stands as a singular work in his career. Painted four years after the death of George Dyer, it channels the spirit of Velázquez to create a haunting meditation on identity and loss. The figure — a fusion of Dyer, Peter Beard, Lucian Freud, and Bacon himself — confronts the viewer directly, compressed within a stark, vertical frame that amplifies its raw psychological charge.
In Study for Self-Portrait (1980), Bacon turns that same unflinching gaze upon himself. A translucent blue haze softens his features, transforming memory and time into something physical. The result is both elegiac and defiant — a late master reflecting on the passing of youth with luminous restraint.
Nearly a century earlier, Auguste Rodin gave form to sacrifice and courage in Les Bourgeois de Calais, a monument to six citizens who offered themselves to save their besieged city. In Jean de Fiennes, vêtu, Grand Modèle, the youngest burgher twists backward, arms outstretched in disbelief, his youth and fear rendered with poignant realism. Cast in 1984 by the Coubertin Foundry for the Musée Rodin, it remains one of the most moving figures of the ensemble.
Its counterpart, Pierre de Wiessant, vêtu, Grand Modèle, conveys anguish through gesture — a hand raised to shield his face, his body contorted in moral torment. Cast in 1982, it stands among the most emotionally charged of Rodin’s creations.
Together, these works — Bacon’s tortured introspection and Rodin’s sculptural heroism — reveal art’s enduring power to confront suffering, courage, and the beauty of being human.
These are some of the highlights of the Contemporary Evening Auction presented by CELINE. Bringing together a curated selection of works that reflect the seismic shifts in art-making from the post-war period to the present day, the auction takes place at Sotheby’s London on 16 October.
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https://www.sothebys.com/en/auction-catalogue/2025/contemporary-evening-auction-l25024?s=intro
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