Francis Bacon was one of the most influential and original figure painters of the twentieth century. He is mostly known for his intensity of the work. He was born in Dublin, Ireland on October 28th 1909 to English parents. He never received formal art education. At the age of 16, he moved to London and by the year 1929, he became a furniture and interior designer. In the same year, he began to experiment with oil painting and started to exhibit his paintings and furniture at his apartment. After a few years, his artworks began to attract attention and had his first solo exhibition in 1934. However, after he had his solo shows, he destroyed his artworks. In 1944, he began to paint intensively again. His artworks were influenced by Pablo Picasso, and in late 1940s and early 50s, he was heavily influenced by surrealism. It was in the 1950s that he began to develop his distinctive style and produced his infamous artworks including Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X and Vincent Van Gogh's The Painter on the Road to Tarascon. His figures scream in physical and mental pains, being tortured in bedrooms, bathrooms and cages. Bacon's artworks are mostly in expressionist style with distorted human and animal forms illustrating corrupted and disgusting humanity.
