Bacon Self-Portrait May Fetch More Than $30 Million

A Francis Bacon self-portrait is estimated to raise more than 20 million pounds ($31.3 million) at an auction in London.

Bacon’s 1964 “Study for Self-Portrait” will be included in Christie’s International’s June 27 sale of postwar and contemporary art. The auction house announced the sale in an e- mail today and wasn’t prepared to divulge the name or nationality of the seller.

The gold-framed canvas shows Bacon sitting on a bed. The expressionistic face is set on a cross-legged figure derived from a John Deakin photograph of his friend Lucian Freud that the artist kept in his London studio. It’s one of 12 floor- length self-portraits, four of which are now in museums, Christie’s said.

Another portrait from the same series sold for 21.6 million pounds at Sotheby’s (BID), London, in June 2007.

(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

Muse highlights include Farah Nayeri on film in Cannes, Martin Gayford on art and Zinta Lundborg’s New York weekend.

To contact the writer on the story: Scott Reyburn in London at sreyburn@hotmail.com.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.

Enlarge image

Francis Bacon self-portrait

Christie's Images Ltd. 2012 via Bloomberg.

A 1964 Francis Bacon self-portrait. The painting, featuring a cross-legged figure based on a photograph of the artist's friend, Lucian Freud, will be included by Christie's International in its June 27 auction of post-war and contemporary artworks in London.

A 1964 Francis Bacon self-portrait. The painting, featuring a cross-legged figure based on a photograph of the artist's friend, Lucian Freud, will be included by Christie's International in its June 27 auction of post-war and contemporary artworks in London. Source: Christie's Images Ltd. 2012 via Bloomberg.