Francis Bacon, a self-taught artist, is one of the most important post-war painters. Bacon personally called himself a ‘personal realist', who, out of his own dark state of mind expressed his version of reality through an ephemeral and flamboyant style. Bacon ended up on the streets at a young age and was forced into years of wandering through England and France. When he saw Nicolas Poussin's 'Le Massacre des innocents' in Chantilly, he resolved to become a painter. Picasso’s biomorphic figures also became defining for his art. Images of the internally torn man in a rough style made way for more personal portraits using a finer and more realistic technique and a softer colour palette in his twilight years.
