As Bacon remarked to David Sylvester in 1975, “I loathe my own face. . . . I’ve done a lot of self-portraits, really because people have been dying around me like flies and I’ve nobody else left to paint but myself.” This striking triptych—the head emerging from a deep abyss of black paint—provides no sense of the space inhabited by the sitter. The tightly constricted view allows only for ruminations on the face itself—its ravages, its deep psychological depths—and the sense of turning around it slowly, going from one frame to the next, as if in a languorous panning shot.

Inscription: on the reverse of each canvas: 'Study for a Self-Portrait, Francis Bacon, 1979; left; right; center

The artist (until 1980; to Marlborough); [Marlborough Gallery, New York, 1980]; Jacques and Natasha Gelman, New York (1980–his d. 1986; her d. 1998)

New York, 1980, cat. no. 13, ill. p. 30; London, 1985, cat. no. 109, ill.; Stuttgart, 1985-86, cat. no. 109, ill.; Berlin, 1986, cat. no. 109, ill. (as per Gelman Catalogue)

New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 12, 1989 - April 1, 1990.

London, England: Royal Academy, April 19 - July 15, 1990. "Gelman Collection" exh. cat. illus. in color, p. 289, discussed pp. 288-289.

Martigny, Suisse: Foundation Pierre Gianadda, 18 juin-1 novembre 1994. ¦de Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman¦, Rédaction du catalogue: William S. Lieberman, Auteur du catalogue: Sabine Rewald, Texts de: Dawn Ades, John Ashbery, Jacques Dupin, John Golding, Lawrence Gowing, William S. Lieberman, Philippe de Montebello, Pierre Schneider et Gary Tinterow. p. 315 (illus. in color).

Edinburgh, Scotland: Scottish Natinal Gallery of Modern Art, June 4- September 4, 2005; Hamburg, Germany: Hamburger Kunsthalle, October 7, 2005- January 8, 2006; Francis Bacon: Portraits and Heads.

Dusseldorf, Germany: Kustsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, September 16, 2006-January 7, 2007, Francis Bacon. pp.180-181, no. 63, discussed, illus. in color.

Francis Bacon, Tate Britain, England, September 11, 2008- January 4, 2009; Museo Nacional del Prado, February 3, 2009- April 19, 2009; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 18, 2009- August 16, 2009, pg. 250.

Sylvester, 1980, no. 111, ills. p. 144 [right-hand panel only], frontispiece [center panel only], ill. p. 145; Leiris, 1983, no.126, ill.; Ades and Forge, 1985, no. 109, ill.; Schmied, 1985, no. 127, ill. p. 86; Sylvester, 1987, no. 111. ill. p. 144. (as per Gelman Catalogue)