| 1909 |
Born in Dublin on 28 October to English parents. |
| 1914 |
Family moves to London. Bacon’s father Edward {racehorse breeder & trainer} joins the War Office. |
| 1925-28 |
Bacon suffers from asthma & is privately tutored. Goes to Berlin & Paris. Greatly influenced by Picasso
exhibition. This determines his decision to become a painter. |
| 1929 |
Takes a studio in Queensberry Mews, London, where he exhibits his own furniture designs. Begins painting in oils. |
| 1930 |
Arranges exhibition with the artist Roy de Maistre, showing furniture & paintings. |
| 1931 |
Devotes himself to painting after abandoning his work as a decorator. Earns his living by doing odd jobs, none
of them connected to art. |
| 1934 |
First one-man exhibition which he organizes himself, without success. |
| 1936 |
His work is rejected by the International Surrealist Exhibition in London. Disheartened, he paints less. |
| 1937 |
Takes part in a group exhibition at Agnews London, together with Ivon Hitchens, Victor Pasmore, John Piper, Roy
de Maistre & Graham Sutherland. |
| 1942-44 |
Declared unfit for Military Service because of his asthma. Destroys most of his earlier work. |
| 1945 |
He resumes painting & exhibits the triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of the Crucifixion.
This causes an uproar at the Lefevre Gallery. |
| 1945-55 |
Several group exhibitions, in which he begins the series of "Heads".
Represents Great Britain with his long time friend at the XXVII Biennale in Venice.
First Retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
Exhibits with Henry Moore, Matthew Smith & Graham Sutherland at the Lefevre Gallery & Redfern Gallery,
London.
Teaches at the Royal College of Art as deputy for John Minton.
Paints Study after Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X. {1953} |
| 1957 |
First one-man exhibition in Paris.
Exhibits Van Gogh series at the Hanover Gallery, London. |
| 1959 |
Paints in St Ives, Cornwall the portrait {from memory} of Muriel Belcher owner of Soho's Colony Club, London. |
| 1960 |
First exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery, London. |
| 1961-64 |
Acquires his last studio in Reece Mews, South Kensington, London.
Friendship with George Dyer, the model for many of his paintings.
Paints the large triptych Three Figures in a Room.
Friendship with the sculptor Alberto Giacometti. |
| 1966 |
Winner of the Rubens Prize awarded by the City of Siegen, West Germany.
Exhibits in Paris. |
| 1968 |
He visits New York for the opening of his exhibition at the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery. |
| 1971-72 |
Major retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Death of his companion & model George Dyer in Paris.
Bacon paints the large triptych in his memory. |
| 1972-74 |
Paints a series of large triptychs as well as several self-portraits.
Meets companion & model John Edwards. |
| 1975 |
Major exhibition. He travels to New York for the opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
| 1976 |
Portrait of Michel Leiris. |
| 1977 |
Visits Balthus in Rome.
Attends his very successful exhibition in Paris. |
| 1984 |
Paints a large triptych Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards. |
| 1985 |
Retrospective at the , London.
Paints large triptych Study for Self~Portrait. |
| 1988-91 |
Exhibition in Moscow
Paints second version of the 1944 triptych. Three Studies for Figures at the Base of the Crucifixion.
Exhibitions at Smithsonian Institute Washington.
Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden.
Marlborough Fine Art, London.
, Liverpool.
Paints Study from the Human Body |
| 1992 |
Goes to Madrid to visit friends, he suffers a fatal heart attack on 28 April aged eighty two. |
