Major Works

The artist in him was awakened when he saw an exhibition of 106 drawings by Picasso in 1927 at the Galerie Paul Rosenberg in Paris. In late 1928 or early 1929, he started to work as an interior designer in London where he has just returned to and made a studio in a converted garage in the city. Erick Alden, who is known to be the first collector of his work shared the flat he rented who occupied the upper floor. He met Erick Hall who became his patron and lover in a torturous relationship in 1929 as he was working as a telephone exchange. In the first show of the winter of 1929, Bacon showcased his rugs and furniture along with some paintings which was mostly purchased by Hall that are the earliest known surviving paintings by the artist.

He returned to Germany in 1930 where a well known portrait of the artist was taken by Helmar Lerski a Swiss photographer and cinematographer. In the same year, he met Roy de Maistre, an Australian painter who was to become his mentor and friend. He then began to produce his many distorted works of art that was even influenced by a book that he got which included dentistry pictures where there were very detailed drawings and depictions of diseases of the human mouth and teeth which is evident in most of his grotesque works of art. He is known to produce his works after viewing those of other artists which he then derives inspiration from.