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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Dalya Alberge

Lovers’ drunken brawl nearly cost Francis Bacon an eye, diaries reveal

Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait with Injured Eye, 1972. The painting was inspired by the aftermath of a violent quarrel.
Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait with Injured Eye, 1972. The painting was inspired by the aftermath of a violent quarrel. Photograph: Prudence Cuming Associates/The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2022

Francis Bacon feared for his sight in one eye and how it would affect his future as a painter after he was seriously injured in a drunken brawl with a lover in 1972, it has emerged.

Part of the evidence comes from the previously unpublished diaries of the late Denis Wirth-Miller, who was Bacon’s friend for 45 years, although their relationship was famously turbulent.

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