Study for Bullfight No. 1, 1969

Bacon owned many illustrated books on bullfighting, among which the earliest so far identified is Peter Buckley, Bullfight (1958). However, while the configuracions of bull and matador can be traced in part to these photographs, equally importantly he consultes them for incidental details – such as the encircled numerals on the rear barrier – which introduces an aspect of realism to the artificial arenas he constructed to contain the action. Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné, 2016, p. 900.