''Head IV'', sometimes subtitled ''Man with a Monkey'', is a 1949 painting by Irish-born British artist

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

, one of series of works made in 1949 for his first one-man exhibition at the

Hanover Gallery The Hanover Gallery was an art gallery in London. It was opened in June 1948 by the German art expert Erica Brausen and financier and art collector Arthur Jeffress at 32A St. George's Street, W1, and closed on 31 March 1973. It was named afte ...

, in London. It measures and is held in a private collection. The painting is part of a series of six works from the late 1940s depicting heads. Like ''

Head III ''Head III'' is an oil painting by Francis Bacon, one of series of works made in 1949 for his first one-man exhibition at the Hanover Gallery, in London. As with the other six paintings in the series, it focuses on the disembodied head of male f ...

'' and ''

Head V ''Head V'' is a 1949 painting by Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon, one of series of works made in 1949 for his first one-man exhibition at the Hanover Gallery, in London. It measures and is held in a private collection. The painting is ...

'', ''Head IV'' is usually considered as an intermediate steps towards his ''

Head VI ''Head VI'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by Irish-born figurative artist Francis Bacon, the last of six panels making up his "1949 Head" series. It shows a bust view of a single figure, modeled on Diego Velázquez's ''Portrait of Innocent X ...

'' (and ''Head IV'' is sometimes confused with the better known ''Head VI''). The work depicts the upper half of a male figure in a suit, in a rear quarter view facing away from the viewer, in a space shrouded with vertical bands interpreted as curtains. The figure is possibly looking in a mirror, where a simian face looks back. Like ''

'', it is painted in dark tones of grey and black on a beige ground with white highlights, which in this case pick out the man's shirt collar, his neck, ear and temple. The placing of the two heads suggest the man is dissolving into the monkey, although the man is sometimes described as having a monkey on his shoulder; the low contrast between the elements have been likened to a cinematic dissolve. It may be based on a photograph. Bacon's six ''Head'' paintings were first exhibited at the Hanover Gallery in 1949, alongside four other important early works by Bacon: ''

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion ''Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion'' is a 1944 triptych painted by the Anglo-Irish people, Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon (artist), Francis Bacon. The canvasses are based on the Erinyes, Eumenides—or Furies—of ...

'', ''

Figure in a landscape ''Figure in a landscape'' is a 1945 painting by the Irish-born artist Francis Bacon. Based on a photograph of Eric Hall dozing on a seat in Hyde Park, also the basis of another painting, ''Figure in a landscape'' (1945), which was bought by Diana ...

'', ''Study from the Human Body'' and ''

Study for Portrait Study or studies may refer to: General * Education **Higher education * Clinical trial * Experiment * Observational study * Research * Study skills, abilities and approaches applied to learning Other * Study (art), a drawing or series of draw ...

'' (also known as '' Man in a Blue Box'').Exhibition catalogues: A chronological selection of solo and group exhibition catalogues from the MB Art Collection.
". MB Art Foundation. Retrieved 20 May 2017 Many are now held by major public collections. ''Head IV'' was bought in 1949 by Tony Hubbard, heir to a fortune from the Woolworth business. It entered the private collection of the New York broker Geoffrey Gates in 1963. It remains in a private collection. A 1961 self-portrait of Bacon is also known as ''Head IV''.

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