''Three Figures in a Room'' is a 1964

oil-on-canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

triptych painting by 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 ...

. Each panel measures and shows a separate view of his lover

George Dyer George Dyer may refer to: * George Dyer (poet) (1755–1841), English classicist and writer * George Dyer (politician) (1802–1878), American physician and politician * George P. Dyer (1876–1948), American football coach * George R. Dyer (1869� ...

, whom Bacon first met in 1963. It is the first of Bacon's works to feature Dyer, a model to whom he returned repeatedly in his paintings. The work has been described as Bacon's first secular triptych. Bacon had been painting triptychs since his in 1944 break-through ''

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 ...

''. ''Three Figures'' continues the theme of Bacon studying a single subject from different angles. Although painted on three separate canvases, each image occupies the same space, marked by a brown elliptical floor and yellowish walls which continue across the panels. The presence of a single model three times in the same space defies narrative explanation. Dyer is depicted in three different positions, all twisted and contorted. Bacon uses large and vigorous brushstrokes to create distinctive splashes of colour. In the left panel, a naked Dyer sits on a toilet facing away from the viewer; he rests on a massive black bed or chair in the centre panel; and he is sitting contorted on a pedestal chair in the right panel. The creased back of the left figure may be inspired by

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

's drawing ''

After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself ''After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself'' is a pastel drawing by Edgar Degas, made between 1890 and 1895. Since 1959, it has been in the collection of the National Gallery, London. This work is one in a series of pastels and oils that Degas cre ...

'', and also possibly by the

Belvedere Torso __NOTOC__ The Belvedere Torso is a tall fragmentary marble statue of a male nude, known to be in Rome from the 1430s, and signed prominently on the front of the base by "Apollonios, son of Nestor, Athenian", who is unmentioned in ancient litera ...

. Art critic

David Sylvester Anthony David Bernard Sylvester (21 September 1924 – 19 June 2001) was a British art critic and curator. Although he received no formal education in the arts, during his long career he was influential in promoting modern artists, in particula ...

has suggested that the centre and right figures may be inspired by

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

's sculptures in the Medici Chapel, and draws parallels with the three figures in

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

's ''

Bathers with a Turtle ''Bathers with a Turtle'' is a painting by Henri Matisse from 1907 to 1908, in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural ...

''. The work was bought by the French state in 1968 and has been part of the collection of the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

since 1976.

References

''Three Figures in a Room''
Centre Georges Pompidou * David Sylvester, Francis Bacon à nouveau, éd. André Dimanche, Paris, 2006
''Three Figures in a Room'' (1964) to Feature in Musée d’Orsay Exhibition

''Reading Between the Lines: Claude Simon and the Visual Arts''
Jean H. Duffy p,134-135
''About Modern Art''
David Sylvester p. 461-2 {{Francis Bacon (artist) 1964 paintings Paintings by Francis Bacon Triptychs