Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud

"This was painted as the left panel of a triptych (see below), which was separated soon after it was completed and sold by Marlborough Fine Art, with Bacon's approval, as individual canvases. The centre and right panels are 64-06 and 64-07, respectively. Freud's pose was probably (freely) based on photographs John Deakin took for Bacon of the sitter on his bed. The manner in which the light cord trails over Freud head is slightly mocking, while the soles of the shoes that face the viewer are typically defiant. It is regrettable that these three fine, angst-ridden paintings are so seldom toured, or seen." Martin Harrison, Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné