From the edition of 182 numbered in Arabic numerals, together with a number of hors commerce and artist’s proofs. Signed in felt-tip pen lower right and numbered in pencil lower left.

Created in 1984, after Study for Self-Portrait (1982) translates Bacon’s painting of the same title into offset lithography. Published by Marlborough Gallery, New York, the print belongs to a group of graphic works through which compositions derived from Bacon’s paintings were reinterpreted for paper. The source painting, completed in August 1982, is held in a private collection.

A solitary figure sits upon a chair within a shallow, sparsely defined space. The body is folded into an informal seated position, while the face is disrupted by blurred and displaced features. Broad areas of blue and sandy yellow establish the surrounding field, punctuated by darker linear and geometric elements. Although the space appears more open than the tightly enclosed interiors found elsewhere in Bacon’s work, the figure remains isolated and exposed.

The offset-lithographic process converts the varied surface of the original painting into clearly differentiated passages of printed colour. Soft tonal transitions within the body contrast with the flatter surrounding fields, while the distortion of the head prevents the image from settling into a conventional likeness. The result retains the instability characteristic of Bacon’s portraiture without relying upon the more violent imagery associated with some of his earlier compositions.

Self-portraiture became an increasingly important part of Bacon’s practice during the 1970s and 1980s. Here, the subdued palette and comparatively restrained pose temper—but do not remove—the physical uncertainty of the figure. The work approaches identity as mutable and provisional, continuing Bacon’s sustained examination of the human body as something simultaneously present, vulnerable and resistant to fixed representation.

A detailed condition report is available upon request.