Francis Bacon’s Two Figures, 1953: sex, death and animal instinct

The bleak chronicler of the human condition explores the relationship between pleasure and pain

House of pain …

This is one of Bacon’s most acclaimed but little-seen paintings. It was created at the cottage of his violent ex-fighter pilot boyfriend, Peter Lacy, where, according to biographer John Richardson, the artist spent a lot of time in bondage.

Brute force …

Bacon’s classic mix of sex, death and animal instincts explodes directly through the buzzing vertical lines, the corpse-blue flesh and rictus of pleasure and pain.

Fight club …

The sadomasochistic pose was apparently inspired by wrestling magazines. But that interpretation might have been a Trojan horse for a work made when gay sex was illegal and in the news.

Sex crime …

The quaint antique bed and black, curtained box of a room offer a defiant message to its audience, too. This is less a private boudoir than a triumphantly sordid theatre. The couple stare down their onlookers, grimacing at them. Manet’s Olympia – a reclining but far from traditionally demure nude prostitute – is the ghost in the room.

Part of Francis Bacon: Couplings, Gagosian Gallery, Grosvenor Hill, to 3 August

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