Francis Bacon

British, 1909 - 1992

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Painted entirely in shades of white, charcoal, and steel gray, a slim, white, almost ghostly dog makes its way from our left to right with its snout held low, along a sidewalk or rails in this vertical composition. The dog is thinly painted and blurry, as if shown in action, so the details are difficult to make out. The dark, gray space is defined only by three diagonals running from the center of the left edge down into the lower right corner. Within the band made by the lower two diagonals, two parallel sets of curving, parallel lines suggest grates or gutters over storm drains. Seeming unrelated to the rest of the image, three faint, gray, ruled lines radiate upward from a point near the lower-left corner to intersect the lowermost border defining the gutter.
Francis Bacon, Study of a Dog, 1953, oil on canvas, Given in memory of Charles Edward Rhetts by his wife and children, 1976.7.1

Study of a Dog

Francis Bacon · 1953 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1976.7.1