Skip to main content
Pope I - Study After Pope Innocent X By Velazquez by Francis Bacon
Pope I - Study after Pope Innocent X by Velazquez
Pope I - Study After Pope Innocent X By Velazquez by Francis Bacon
Pope I - Study After Pope Innocent X By Velazquez by Francis Bacon
© Estate of Francis Bacon 2004. All rights reserved, DACS.

Pope I - Study after Pope Innocent X by Velazquez

Artist (Dublin, Ireland, 1909 - 1992)
Associated (Rome, Italy, 1574 - 1655)
Date1951
Mediumoil on canvas
ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings
DimensionsOverall: Height: 197.8 cm, Width: 137.4 cm
Frame: Height: 217.2 cm, Width: 156 cm, Depth: 9 cm
AcquisitionPresented in 1956 by the Contemporary Art Society.
Copyright© The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved. DACS 2021
LocationOn Display - Gallery 18
Object numberABDAG002364
About MeFrancis Bacon is one of the most important figurative painters of the twentieth century. He received no formal art training and took up painting after seeing a Picasso exhibition in Paris in 1928.

'Pope I' was the first painting in a series of three, which formed Bacon's first completed series of popes. Painting images of the head of the Catholic Church became an obsession for Bacon for more than twenty years. The artist drew his inspiration from the portrait of Pope Innocent X painted in 1650 by the Spanish artist, Diego Velazquez. Bacon never actually saw the original painting in Rome, but rather worked from numerous reproductions of the famous image.
More About Me
There are around 50 works in Bacon’s series of Pope paintings. He claimed he had nothing against popes, but merely sought "an excuse to use these colours”. Do you believe him?
Exhibitions