{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O83183"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O83183/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HG2911/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HG2911/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2014HG2911","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BG4663","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AW7563","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O83183","accessionNumber":"PH.100-1984","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Francis Bacon","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"John Deakin was notorious for his brutal, no-holds-barred portraits of bohemian Soho in the 1950s, and this portrait of the artist Francis Bacon is no exception.  Taken while Deakin and Bacon shared a cottage in the artists' colony of Wivenhoe Park, Essex, this portrait lays bare even the tiniest physical imperfection without diminishing the power of Bacon's wide-eyed gaze, simultaneously confrontational and anguished.\r\n\r\nDeakin considered himself a painter first and was neglectful of his own photographs; as a result, most of his surviving work is torn and creased.  His reputation, which had languished after his death in 1972, was revived by the V&A's 1984 exhibition <i>The Salvage of the Photographer</i>.","physicalDescription":"Close-up full face portrait of Francis Bacon.  The photograph is torn round the edges, with the lower right corner missing, and creased in the upper right corner.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Deakin, John","id":"A7280"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"AAT25687"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gelatin silver process","id":"AAT139114"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Gelatin-silver print","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"},{"text":"Gender and Sexuality","id":"THES48940"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2014HG2911","2006BG4663","2006AW7563"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"X","box":"921E"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1952","earliest":"1952-01-01","latest":"1952-12-31"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Copyright Conde Nast","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"23.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"30.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Deakin photographed Francis Bacon when the two of them shared a cottage in Wivenhoe Park, Essex, an artists' and writers' colony.  Deakin had wanted to be a painter and was often careless and neglectful of his photographs.  This portrait is no exception, with tears around the edges and one corner gone entirely.\n\nHistorical significance: Deakin's reputation went into decline after his death in 1972; indeed, he had all but given up photography in the last years of his life, after brief stints at <i>Vogue</i> and two small exhibitions in Soho.  Bruce Bernard rescued four boxes of photographs from his Soho flat after his death; these creased and tattered photographs formed the basis of the 1984 V&A exhibition <i>The Salvage of a Photographer</i>, which ensured Deakin's posthumous reputation.","historicalContext":"Deakin was noted for his brutal, no-holds-barred photographic portraits of the artists, writers, models and other bohemian figures who gathered around Bacon in Soho in the 1950s.  There has been some controversy following Bacon's death in 1992 surrounding his reliance on Deakin's photographs to produce his paintings.","briefDescription":"Francis Bacon, gelatin-silver print, John Deakin, 1952","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"p. 112","free":"Robin Muir, <u>Vogue 100 : a century of style</u>. London : The National Portrait Gallery, 2016. ISBN: 9781855145610. Published to accompany the exhibition held 11 February - 23 May 2016 at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and 24 June - 30 October 2016 at the Manchester Art Gallery.\r\n "}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Bacon, Francis","id":"N2795"}],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Bernard, Bruce","id":"N2793"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"men","id":"AAT25928"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Gallery 100, ‘History of photography’, 2011-2012, label text : \r\n\r\nJohn Deakin (1912-72)\r\nFrancis Bacon\r\n1952\r\n\r\nDeakin’s portraits have a stark quality that seems\r\nto delve into the soul of the sitter, in this case the\r\nartist Francis Bacon. Many of Deakin’s prints were\r\ndiscovered damaged in his rooms after his death.\r\nThe torn paper, left deliberately un-repaired, arguably\r\nadds to the image’s intensity.\r\n\r\nGelatin silver print\r\nMuseum no. Ph.100-1984\r\n\r\n","date":{"text":"07 03 2014","earliest":"2014-03-07","latest":"2014-03-07"}}],"partNumbers":["PH.100-1984"],"accessionNumberNum":"100","accessionNumberPrefix":"PH","accessionYear":1984,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-29","recordCreationDate":"2003-08-05","availableToBook":false}}