How the American Civil War Offers a Strategy for the United States Against Iran Today
By DEAN KARAYANIS
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This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
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When a modern painting tops $20 million at auction, a certain Rubicon of fame and prestige has been crossed. On February 8 at Christie’s in London, “Study for Portrait II” (1956) by the British painter Francis Bacon (1909–1992) is expected to sell for about $23 million, a record for the artist. One of a series of Bacon works depicting somber popes on thrones, “Study for Portrait II” — which according to the Daily Tele graph belongs to Sophia Loren — will handily top the record $15 million paid last November for a later work by Ba con, “Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe” (1968) at Sotheby’s in New York. How did Bacon, who according to biographers – including a longtime friend and confidant, Michael Peppiatt – began as a homeless adolescent hustler with an interest in interior design, develop into one of the most prized painters of the modern era? Mr. Peppiatt, who has already authored a life of the artist, “Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma” (1997), offers further explanations in “Francis Bacon in the 1950s” (Yale University Press, 224 pages, $50).
By DEAN KARAYANIS
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By MATTHEW RICE
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By JAMES BROOKE
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By MATTHEW RICE
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By JENNIFER DOHERTY
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By BRADLEY CORTRIGHT
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By A.R. HOFFMAN
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By STEPHEN MOORE
|When a modern painting tops $20 million at auction, a certain Rubicon of fame and prestige has been crossed. On February 8 at Christie’s in London, “Study for Portrait II” (1956) by the British painter Francis Bacon (1909–1992) is expected to sell for about $23 million, a record for the artist. One of a series of Bacon works depicting somber popes on thrones, “Study for Portrait II” — which according to the Daily Tele graph belongs to Sophia Loren — will handily top the record $15 million paid last November for a later work by Ba con, “Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe” (1968) at Sotheby’s in New York. How did Bacon, who according to biographers – including a longtime friend and confidant, Michael Peppiatt – began as a homeless adolescent hustler with an interest in interior design, develop into one of the most prized painters of the modern era? Mr. Peppiatt, who has already authored a life of the artist, “Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma” (1997), offers further explanations in “Francis Bacon in the 1950s” (Yale University Press, 224 pages, $50).
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