Lot 116
ATTRIBUTED TO FRANCIS BACON (BRITISH 1909-1992) §
PAINTED TABLE
Auction: Day Two | Lots 100 to 527 | Fri 31 October from 10am
Description
pine, painted white overlaid with black paint
Dimensions
73.5cm high, 91.5cm wide, 43.2cm deep (29in high, 36in wide, 17in deep)
Provenance
Roy De Maistre, and by family descent to the present owner.
Footnote
The present table has long been attributed to Francis Bacon by Roy de Maistre's family. It appears painted white in a photograph of de Maistre’s studio— with the photo thought by the family to date to around 1950— and it can be seen positioned to the right-hand side of the image. De Maistre owned several examples of Bacon’s furniture, including a sofa and a three-panelled screen, the latter sold at Christie’s, London, on 4 October 2018 (lot 49).
Compared with Bacon’s more elaborate furniture, the table is relatively restrained in form. Its original white surface, however, reflects a colour Bacon frequently employed in his designs. De Maistre later repainted it black, a shade he strongly preferred and often applied to much of the furniture in his studio.
Although Bacon later dismissed his furniture designs as derivative of the French avant-garde, their geometry and clean lines foreshadow elements that would re-emerge in his painting. His early immersion in interiors—marked by an interest in mirrors, tubular steel, curtains and ornamental detail—fed directly into the iconography of his canvases. His furniture and mirror designs reveal the influence of Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier, and were recognised at the time: The Studio magazine featured his work in its August 1930 article, “The 1930 Look in British Decoration.”
Later that year, in November 1930, Bacon exhibited his furniture, rug designs and paintings at 17 Queensberry Mews West, London, alongside works by de Maistre and Jean Shepeard. By 1933, he had largely set aside interior design to devote himself to painting.
