Rug by Francis Bacon (Lot 50)

RCEWA – Rug by Francis Bacon (lot 50) Statement of the Expert Adviser to the Secretary of State that the rug meets Waverley criteria two and three. Further Information The ‘Applicant’s statement’ and the ‘Note of Case History’ are available on the Arts Council Website: www.artscouncil.org.uk/reviewing-committee-case-hearings Please note that images and appendices referenced are not reproduced. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Brief Description of item A hand-knotted rug in wool with linen weft, designed by Francis Bacon (1909-1992), produced by Royal Wilton, Wiltshire, as part of their ‘Wessex’ range, 1929-30. The rug is of a rich brown colour with a floating centralised geometric design, which is made up of overlapping elongated rectangles and semicircles. There are areas of contrasting spots and mottled weave in the outermost rectangles. ‘Francis Bacon’ in upper case letters is woven into the bottom right corner. Measurements: 212.5 h. x 124.70 w. cm. Approx. 7’ h. x 4’ w. Condition: the rug is structurally sound but with light soiling, some stains and some fading. The side edges appear to have been repaired. 2. Context This hand-knotted rug forms an important and little-known part of the first artistic output of Francis Bacon, one of the most important and widely recognised of all modern British artists. It was made in about 1929-1930 when he worked as a furniture and interior designer in London, as well as pursuing his ambitions in painting. Bacon offered his rugs for sale at the first exhibition of his work which took place in his South Kensington studio in November 1930. The exhibition also included paintings and a print, in an edition of three, by him. We can assume that the rugs were displayed there on the wall judging by the images published in The Studio magazine in August 1930 where they hang like pictures, prominently displaying Bacon’s full name or initials in large letters at the bottom. A record of the exhibition states that he charged 22 guineas for rugs (10% of the average annual male wage in 1920). Bacon was largely unknown at the time, yet his designs were made by the Royal Wilton Carpet Factory which, innovatively, was beginning to produce carpets by leading modern designers. We do not know if the rugs were commissioned by the firm, by Bacon or by a supporter of Bacon’s. Indeed, this phase of his work is little known, as Bacon went on to dedicate himself exclusively to fine art, shaping the narrative of his own career by ignoring or destroying examples of his work that he felt did not fit his chosen story. Provenance of the three rugs Acquired directly from Bacon by Eric Allden (1886-1949) in about 1929-1930 but certainly by 1932. Acquired by Francis Elek in the 1940s, until consigned to Christie’s in 2018 by David Elek and Sharon Elek-Cohen (Sale 15485, lot 50). Key References ‘The 1930 Look in British Decoration’ The Studio (August 1930), pp. 140-141 (see appendix A) Ronald Alley, Francis Bacon (London 1964) David Sylvester, Interviews with Francis Bacon (London 1980), pp. 68-71 Richard Shone, ‘Francis Bacon in 1930: An Early Exhibition Rediscovered’, The Burlington Magazine (April 1996), pp. 253-255. The first recovery of Bacon’s 1930 studio exhibition. Susan Day, Art Deco and Modernist Carpets (London 2002) Tate Britain Spotlight display, 2009, ‘Francis Bacon: Early Work’ Clive Rogers and Jean Manuel de Noronha, ‘Rugs of the Young Francis Bacon’, Hali (162, Winter 2009), pp. 28-31. Concentrating mainly on a group of disputed rugs but also offering opinions on the present examples. James Norton, ‘Bacon’s beginnings’, The Burlington Magazine (January 2016), pp. 19-25. An especially useful article drawing upon Eric Allden’s diaries. Martin Harrison, Francis Bacon Catalogue Raisonné, (London 2016) ‘A portrait of Francis Bacon as a young man’, Christie’s London, 1 October 2018, Post War and Contemporary Art (auction preview article), https://www.christies.com/features/Early- works-by-Francis-Bacon-9362-1.aspx 3. Waverley criteria The object meets criterion 2. The rug in question is of outstanding aesthetic importance in the history of British art and design. It is among the finest modernist carpets ever produced in Britain, designed by one of Britain’s greatest and best-known modern artists. The rug was hand-knotted at Wilton as part of their ‘Wessex’ range of highest-quality carpet weavings which was initiated in 1929. The rug shows Bacon working in a mode similar to his contemporary paintings, albeit in an especially abstract mode. It can also be studied for information on the artist’s early inspiration. The object meets criterion 3. Bacon’s rugs are of great importance to his early work and require more research to be fully understood in the wider context of his life’s work. Study of the object itself is key to such research. Until very recently, scholarship has not focused on this period in Bacon’s life and both Bacon himself—as he became a successful fine artist— and certain scholars chose to ignore this work, preferring to adhere to the image Bacon fashioned for himself which focused solely on his painting. In addition, very little is known about the Wessex range of rugs that the Royal Wilton Carpet Factory (active since 1834 and given its royal title in 1904) produced around 1929. There is, remarkably, no published history of Wilton and their business archive needs further investigation. The subject can only be studied through surviving carpets and related documents, in particular the relationship between hand and machine production from the late 19th century until 1959, when hand production ceased, and the role and significance of in-house designers versus independent, externally commissioned fine artists. DETAILED CASE Francis Bacon had no formal artistic training yet designed his first rugs at the age of 19 after spending 1927-28 in Paris. Following their weaving by Wilton, Bacon showed his rugs in a small exhibition, which also included his painting and a print, in his South Kensington studio (with two other artists) in 1930. At this time Bacon advertised himself in the Kensington Directory: ‘Francis Bacon: Modern decoration, furniture in metal, glass and wood; rugs and lights’. Like much British Modernism, the rug looks to continental models for inspiration. Clearly Bacon was impressed by Cubism, Surrealism and Italian Metaphysical painting but also by the form of Modernism that we now call Art Deco, especially the rugs of Ivan da Silva Bruhns (1881-1980) and Evelyn Wyld (1882-1973). The furnishings Bacon created were some of the most modern examples being produced in London at the time and illustrate Bacon’s wide- ranging artistic inspirations within European Modernism. Until recently, this rug rarely received more than a mention in publications on Bacon (Alley, 1964 was an exception). Its existence was known owing to a largely overlooked article in The Studio in 1930 and also a series of paintings by Bacon’s studio colleague and mentor Roy (or Roi) de Maistre (1894-1968) who carefully recorded the interior of his protégé’s tidy mews studio in South Kensington in a series of paintings (see appendix B). In addition, recently discovered diaries and photographs of Eric Allden, who was Bacon’s close friend from 1929 - 1932, form the basis of a very recent Burlington Magazine article (Norton) in which Allden’s recollections of the production of Bacon’s furniture and rugs are cited. The article, which like an earlier Burlington note (Shone), contradicts previous information on Bacon’s early life and work and builds a picture of the London scene that the rug was designed for. The Norton article includes a hitherto unpublished photograph of Allden with two Bacon rugs, the rug in question in the foreground (see Appendix C). These rugs may have escaped Bacon’s purges because they became part of Eric Allden’s possessions and their friendship was relatively short lived. Overall, however, the numerous publications on Bacon focus on the artist’s life and work as a painter, generally from 1944 onwards, and very rarely address his earlier design work. Bacon was a relentless self-fashioner who did not care to preserve what he considered his less successful work, including early output. He attempted to manage the narrative of his work and his designs did not fit into that narrative nor into the hierarchies of the art world once Bacon became successful. Both catalogues raisonnés of Bacon’s oeuvre study destroyed works, and in 1964 Alley stated that ‘these have included some of his finest pictures’ (p. 257). Both also acknowledge the close relationship between Bacon’s earliest artworks (watercolour or gouache) and his rugs, though the latter do not have catalogue entries. Alley notes their pictorial character and their method of display in Bacon’s studio (p. 9). This rug certainly offers a window onto Bacon’s artistic development and the movements, artists or designers who influenced his work. That this work appears to contrast so dramatically with his later work only adds to the fascination of Bacon as an artist, as does comparison between his early, meticulously arranged studio and his later, famously chaotic working environment. Encouraging the perception of the rug as work of art through the prominent display of a signature was an important strategy of Modernist rug designers or producers. This reflects the increasing status and importance of design as a discipline in the years of high Modernism and the rise in status of the professional designer. By the positioning of the signature, a unidirectional viewing of the object as a work of art is implied.

Load more