The Hugh Lane Gallery, famous for housing Francis Bacon’s art studio after it was relocated from South Kensington, opened a temporary display last month, ‘Bown & Bacon’, showcasing Jane Bown’s photographs of Francis Bacon. Admission to the display is free, and it will be on show until 7 January 2024.
Donated by the Jane Bown Estate, the display contains Bown’s photographs of Bacon in his 7 Reece Mews studio from 1980, alongside selected artefacts from the Hugh Lane Gallery’s Francis Bacon Studio Archive. Visitors can compare these items to the items pictured in Bown’s photographs, as well as compare the studio Bown photographed in 1980 to the reconstruction of Bacon’s studio as it was found in 1992, after Bacon’s death, also housed in the Hugh Lane Gallery.
Bown took the photographs on three roles of film to accompany an interview of Bacon by Miriam Gross. Bown later recalled, “I was rather frightened of [Bacon], I think, but what a face!”
