Published in The British Art Journal Vol. VIII, No. 1 (Summer 2007)

Francis Bacon is not known to have written many letters – or, at least, not many letters from him have been published.  The most significant group which has recently published in full¹ consists of the nine letters which he wrote to Graham Sutherland from 1943 to 1954,²  together with letters to Michel Leiris, from 1966-1989, which were published in connection with the exhibition of Bacon triptychs at the Gagosian Gallery in London in June 2006. Letters to Arthur Jeffress and Erica Brausen and to Robert and Lisa Sainsbury have also been printed in Michael Peppiatt’s book, Francis Bacon in the 1950’s, which was published to coincide with an exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich in September 2006. Otherwise, not a lot of letters have appeared, although it is known that he did write to various people, and there may be future revelations for Bacon scholars to look forward to.³

One person to whom Bacon wrote and who took care to preserve his letters was that great patron of 20th-century British art, Sir Colin Anderson.⁴ These twelve letters are here published in full⁵ for the first time.⁶

It is not clear how the two men met each other, although it was probably during or shortly after the War. (A strong candidate for effecting the introduction would have been Graham Sutherland, who knew both well at this time. Roger Berthoud, in his biography of Sutherland,⁷ says that he was told by Anderson that Sutherland first brought Bacon’s work to Anderson’s attention.) In 1945 Anderson became a member of the committee of the Contemporary Arts Society and, as one of their buyers for 1946, he had made the extremely far-sighted decision to purchase an early Bacon picture, ‘Figure Study II’.⁸

The first letter that survives in the Anderson collection is undated, although someone (Anderson?) has written onto it ‘?1945′ (See Letter 1). The dating of this letter is quite

important. It refers to an orange picture being one of a group of three, and it is difficult to know, based on Bacon’s pictures that survive, what else this could have been other than Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, which is now in the Tate and which is always attributed to 1944. This connection can only be tentative, because Bacon destroyed so many of his works. However, the letter does say that the group has been sold. Three Studies was shown at a joint exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery in April 1945⁹ and was at some point acquired by Bacon’s friend, Eric Hall (who was to give it to the Tate in 1953). Letter 1 states that two of the three pictures have been dispatched to the buyer.¹⁰ It also refers to another triptych, which is not known to survive. The letter makes it clear that Bacon and Anderson had not, at this stage, met. It is written from 7 Cromwell Place in SW7. Bacon had moved into this studio, which had at one time belonged to Millais, in late 1943.

Letter 2 is written from Monte Carlo.¹¹ Dated ‘Friday 20th‘ it is likely to have been written on Friday 20 June 1947, because Anderson’s response, in the form of a letter to Bacon’s bank, a copy of which survives, is dated 26 June 1947. By this time, one may assume that they have met. The letter begins ‘My dear Colin’ and is signed ‘Francis’, whereas Letter 1 began with the more formal ‘Dear Anderson’ and concluded with ‘Francis Bacon’. Bacon also sends his love to

Anderson’s wife Morna and their children and it would be a little odd to do that if they had never met. Moreover Anderson had by this time bought Figure Study II for the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) and may have met Bacon as part of that transaction. In any event, Bacon felt able to ask Anderson to lend him £300, which would have been a large sum of money at the time.

A feature of Bacon’s practice as a painter is illustrated by Letter 2. Bacon destroyed many pictures, such that there are no known pictures at all surviving from 1947. Yet in this letter he refers to his current work as being three rather large pictures of a crucifixion ‘of blue violet colour’. There is no trace of these pictures now: either they were destroyed or, more cynically, they were never painted, and Bacon was seeking to encourage Anderson to lend the money by persuading him that he was busy at his work and not just frittering his time away gambling in Monte Carlo.

In this letter Bacon mentions the recent visit of Sutherland, with whom he seems to have been particularly friendly at this time, and who had been visiting the South of France for the first time and gambling with Bacon in Monte Carlo. (The Sutherlands were there for 5 weeks, in April and May, and saw Bacon and Hall regularly during that period. They returned to England in late September.)

Letter 3 thanks Anderson for the money and comments on Anderson’s new house. This is a reference to the Anderson family’s having moved from Bedford Gardens in London’s W8, where they had previously been living next door to number 77, which was the block of studios containing Colquhoun and MacBryde, to Hampstead. By the time of Letter 4, still in Monte Carlo, Bacon claims that he has put his studio in Cromwell Place onto the market.¹²

There follows a slightly surprising letter, written the same day, in which Bacon says that he would like to borrow another £300. Particular reasons given are that his ‘old Nurse’, which must be a reference to Bacon’s companion at the time, Jessie Lightfoot,¹³ has had to have an operation on a cataract; and also that Bacon himself has had to have another operation for sinus trouble.

Bacon responds in Letter 6 (presumably still October 1947) mentioning another picture which is not known to survive, of a figure by a window.¹⁴ By February 1948 he is still in Monte Carlo and still trying to sell the London studio. He refers to a forthcoming show at the Redfern (no solo show seems to have taken place, but he might have had something in a group show), and again promises Anderson a picture, this time of Monte Carlo itself. Again, this either does not survive or was never painted (or survives, but has not been identified). Bacon says he wants to go to America, although again this is not known to have happened.

There is then a gap (during part of which Bacon had been visiting his family in South Africa), until Letter 8,¹⁵ which is dated February 1951. In fact, on the assumption that Anderson’s dating is more likely to be accurate than Bacon’s, this should have been a reference to February 1952, because Anderson’s responses bear that date. If so, the date is interesting because it comes at the end of Bacon’s show at the Hanover Gallery, which had opened in December 1951 and closed in February 1952. At this time Bacon was writing from an address at 30 Sumner Place in SW7. No previous connection of him with that address has been identified and it is not known whether he lived there alone or with friends.¹⁶ (Sumner Place is just across Old Brompton Road from Reece Mews, where Bacon lived for roughly the last 30 years of his life, and is also very near Cromwell Place.)

He claimed that he now needed £400 (the previous £600 not having been repaid), in order to avoid being made bankrupt. Anderson no doubt queried what the money was for because Letter 9, again misdated by Bacon, explained to whom he owed money.

Letter 11 cannot be dated, although someone has written on it ‘?54‘. In fact, it was written from Cromwell Place, which Bacon sold in 1951, and so it is clearly out of sequence here. Intriguingly, it mentions the size of the picture which he was working on: ‘about 2 ft 6 by 3 ft 4’. These dimensions fit those of Head 1, which is the only known picture to survive from 1948. Maybe Bacon was describing this, or maybe that is the size of the canvas which he was using in 1948. It is certainly not a size which fits other works. Bacon is still promising Anderson a picture, although it is not thought that he ever gave him one.¹⁷

The last letter, after a long gap, was dated September 1979. Accompanying it was a gallery card from Marlborough, advertising ‘Recent works by Auerbach, Bacon, Moore’ and with a reproduction on the reverse of Bacon’s Jet of Water.

THE LETTERS

Letter 1
7 Cromwell Place [from Francis Bacon, ?1945]
SW7

Dear Anderson
Thank you so much for your note I regret I have got to be away on Wednesday but if you don’t mind do come in and help yourself to a drink and see anything there is here but I am afraid they are in an unfinished state The orange one is one of a group of three which I have just sold and I am afraid the other two have been dispatched to the buyer and this one was left to make an alteration to and the large dark one is a central one of three which are unfinished I am so sorry I shall not be here but if you would care to come my old housekeeper will let you in and do stay as long as you like and please have some drinks. I do hope we shall meet before too long.
With very best wishes

Yours sincerely
Francis Bacon

Letter 2
Chez Mme Bachelier
2 Avenue de la Costa
Monte-Carlo
Friday 20th [June 1947]
My dear Colin

I hope you will forgive me making this request to you but could you possibly lend me £300 until October I am working on a large crucifixion group and I am so anxious to finish them in this light but I am quite broke now and if you could possibly lend me this money I should be terribly grateful about repayment I am coming over at the end of September or October with the paintings and if the galleries will not pay me directly for them I have a certain number of quite valuable pieces of furniture in the flat at Cromwell Place which I will sell and I can repay you then. There are three paintings and rather large I am finishing the second of the group they are about the same size painting if a little larger than the one you bought for the contemporary art society they are in a kind of blue violet colour and I like them very much at the moment I hope it will continue I had not done them at all when Graham was here a few weeks ago so do not know if he would have cared for them or not it was lovely seeing him again and he was looking so well If this is difficult for you to do, be sure to let me know and I will come over to London earlier and sell the furniture but if I could avoid leaving the work at the moment I would like to if by any chance you can Could you pay it into my Bank. The National and Provincial Bank. 161 Brompton Rd. S.W.3. I can then make an application to the Bank to transfer the money to me. I do hope you will excuse me for making this request and do not fail to say if it would be difficult for you. I do hope you are all well My love to Morna and the children
Yours
Francis

Letter 3
Chez Mme Bachelier
2 Avenue de la Costa
Monte-Carlo
July 3rd [1947]

My dear Colin
It was so good of you to lend me the money thank you so much nearer the time I will let you know what date in September I will be over and let you have it back. I am so glad to hear about Graham’s work he seemed to like the light and colour here and find it very stimulating he talked of coming back in the autumn I should like to see the things he has done. I am so pleased you like the new house so much it must be very exciting getting in to it.
My love to you all and thank you again so much
Yours
Francis

Letter 4
Chez Mme Bachelier
2 Avenue de la Costa
Monte-Carlo
9/10/47

My dear Colin
1 have put Cromwell Place into the hands of the agents to sell the lease and the contents for me as I am in desperate straits as usual for money and as soon as it is through I will let you have the £300 you so kindly lent me If by any chance you happen to know of any one who wants a studio like that would you tell them of it it consists of the studio you know also a large room in the front and a bedroom, bathroom and kitchenette it has some good furniture in it although large and an enormous carpet for the studio which is in store now there is everything including bedding and linen for anyone to go straight into I am only asking £1,500 as I want to sell it quickly there is only 21/2 years lease but the landlords will renew it and also the rent is only £100 a year and no extras so it comes under the rent restrictions act and a tenant could not be turned out. I do hope you are all well. I am sure you must love the new house I am working a lot and excited by the new turn the work has taken also at the moment I can paint much smaller pictures which I am glad to be able to do, My best love and wishes to you all and thank you again for your kindness to me
Yours
Francis

Letter 5
Chez Mme Bachelier
2 Avenue de la Costa
Monte-Carlo
Thursday evening
Oct 9th [1947]

My dear Colin
When I wrote to you this morning and told you about selling up my studio I wanted to ask you if you could lend me another £300 until that is arranged but I did not like to, but on thinking it over I know you would not mind and I hope you would have no hesitation in refusing if it is difficult for you I am so terribly sorry to ask you again but I am in one of those troughs of misfortune at the moment as my old Nurse has had an operation for cataract done which has not been a success and I have to have another operation for sinus trouble as I have been running a temperature at nights for some weeks, I had it done about six years ago and it cleared up then for the time. It is not serious but like all those things awfully expensive. I hope you will excuse me asking you again, if you can manage it I will let you have the two amounts the moment the flat is sold and if you happen to know of anyone who wants that kind of flat and studio I would be so grateful if you would mention it to them if you can manage this loan would you pay it into my account at
Lloyds
112 Kensington High St.
W8.
best love and wishes
Francis

Letter 6
My dear Colin
Thank you so much for the instalment it is so terribly good of you I have given the flat to the Knightsbridge agency Knightsbridge Green, I have a picture which I would like so much to give you and if you don’t like it throw it away it is a study of a figure by a window the next time I can find someone going to London I will send it to you. I do hope the studio will go soon. I feel so worried about owing you all this money but will let you have it the moment the flat goes. I love being on this coast with this light one always seems to be on the edge of the real mystery
My love and all best wishes to you all and many many thanks
Yours
Francis

Letter 7
2 Avenue de la Costa
Monte-Carlo
20/2/48
My dear Colin
I am so sorry not to have repaid you the loan yet it was so good of you to lend me the money. I have not yet got rid of the studio, I am showing some things at the Redfern in June and if I cannot pay you back before I hope to do it then I do hope you will forgive me for this delay I have been trying to sell the furniture but I have not been able to get the offer of a reasonable price as they all say it is too big. I am terribly distressed not to have repaid you yet I expect to be back at the end of April I have a painting for you of Monte-Carlo if you hate it can go into the show at the Redfern to be sold but if you should care for it I would love you to have it. I hope you will like the new paintings I think they are much the best I have done and get nearer the reality I long to do. I do not know if I shall come back here I long to go to America to work for a bit I think the nostalgia for everything I love might be so strong that it would be a wonderful atmosphere to work in but I’m afraid the difficulties of working there may be too great. Have you seen Graham? I would like to see the work he has been doing. It has been a wonderful winter here until now there has been wonderful warmth and sun all day but now it has started to snow they have just bedded out the flowers in the gardens in front of the Casino the most lovely blue and violet cinerarias in such masses that the colour they give out is quite luminous. I do hope you are all well my love to you and Morna and the children.
All my lov

Letter 8
30 Sumner Place
London S.W.7.
5/2/51 [N.B. presumably 1952 – see dates on bills]

My dear Colin
I am in a desperate state could you lend me £400 – I am being sued and made bankrupt which starts the most awful complications – The work is going really well and I feel at last I have got through the nonsense and will really be able to paint – I am starting on the autobiographical pictures which I want to do and believe with them I can really get on to the nerve – I have not forgotten what I already owe you and as soon as I have some more paintings in a few weeks I want you to choose any you like – If you could help me I should be so terribly grateful as I am in such a desperate state –
all my love
Francis

Letter 9
30 Sumner Place
S.W.7.
14/2/51 [presume 1952, as above]

My dear Colin
Thank you so much for your letter of course quite naturally you do not want to encourage the gambling – I enclose two accounts that I simply have to pay one for my materials at the Chelsea Art Stores and the other to the Tailors who are suing me I also owe £182 to a friend of mine
Miss Muriel Belcher
170 Russell Court
Woburn Place W.C.l.
She has been terribly kind and lent me this over a long period for day to day living expenses but now is in urgent need of it – I must say painting is a mugs game when it comes to making money I seem to have to spend so much on materials – but I am very excited at the thought of the new pictures as they are going to be quite different to the last lot in two or 3 weeks I would like you to come and see what I have and choose any ones you like – I can sell a lot of paintings as soon as I can get the kind I want done – if you could help me in the interim I should be most terribly grateful and I will repay you in money or work whichever you wish Thank you for writing me such a kind and understanding letter – I would like to explain to you the vice of gambling one day it is for me intimately linked with painting
Best love
Francis

Letter 10
30 Sumner Place
S.W.7.
My dear Colin
Thank you so much for paying my debts it is really terribly kind of you I will ring you up in 2 or 3 weeks and I do hope you will come and see the work
Best love and thank you again
Francis

Letter 11
7 Cromwell Place
S.W.7.
Saturday

Dear Colin
Thank you so much for your letter We enjoyed so much seeing you and Morna on Wednesday About the picture I have a painting I am working on now it is in size about 2 ft 6″ by 3 ft 4″ I hope to have it finished in about a week or 10 days it is a study for a much larger picture I hope to do of ‘Christ shown to the people’ I think it is going well at the present time but I don’t know if it is the kind of picture you and Morna would care for, but I will ring you up as soon as it is finished in case you would care to see it if you do not like it I would very much like to do something for you if you would not mind if I did it in my own time as I am not very good at working to order.
Yours
Francis

LETTER 12
7 Reece Mews
London S.W.7.
1/9/79

Dear Colin
It was so nice of you to write to me saying you liked the ‘Jet of Water’ but the colour is very bad in the reproduction It must be marvellous to be away from London – although I must say I still like it but I live now part of the year in Paris. Thank you again for writing to me.

all my very best wishes to you both

Yours

Francis

1 In Martin Hammer’s Bacon and Sutherland, New Haven and London, 2005.
2 These letters are in the National Galleries and Museums of Wales, Cardiff.
3 Bacon, of course, born in 1909, came from a time when letter-writing was more common and more natural than it is now. It is likely that he wrote to family and friends and it would not be surprising to find that friends such as Denis Wirth-Miller and Richard Chopping would have letters. The publication of the present letters corrects the impression in early editions of Michael Peppiatt’s book Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma that Bacon’s only known letters from Monte Carlo were to Erica Brausen, Arthur Jeffress and Sutherland (see, for example, p123 of the first American edition in 1997). It should be noted that Peppiatt himself obviously has at least one letter from Bacon, as he refers to one dated 5 December 1984 in n2, p63 of his Francis Bacon in the 1950’s. Other letters pop up from time to time. There are, for example, a couple dated 1968 to Robin Darwin, Principal of the Royal College of Art. In them Bacon thanks Darwin for the loan of a studio at the RCA. (The letters are in the RCA archives.) Another one, wrongly dated 14 March 1949, but actually 14 March 1950, is in the Arts Council file for the exhibition ’60 Paintings for ’51’, which was commissioned to celebrate the Festival of Britain. In this Bacon, writing from Cromwell Place, accepted the invitation to participate in the exhibition.
4 1904-1980. Anderson was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford; he then worked for his father’s company, Anderson Green, which managed the Orient Line. He later commissioned artists to complete works for the ships and, as I have shown in ‘Two British Art Patrons of the 1940s and 1950s’ in The British Art Journal, V, 2, Anderson helped many contemporary artists as patron.
5 When publishing letters, decisions have to be taken about the form in which to transcribe them. Martin Hammer took the view – see the note to the Appendix on page 263 of his book – that, since he regarded Bacon’s punctuation and spelling as ‘fairly erratic,’ he thought it appropriate to make ‘minor corrections and minimal punctuation.’ Unfortunately, he did not make clear in the printed text what he had done, so that his readers cannot see the original form and cannot decide for themselves whether or not they agree that his corrections are minor. But having read Bacon’s handwriting, one sees why such a decision could have been taken, as the punctuation, in particular, is usually absent. The choice is for the editor to ‘improve’ the text, in which case square brackets should be used, or to leave it alone. I have taken the latter route and readers will have to make their own decisions on questions of punctuation. In order to help the reader make sense of the letters I have in some places left a gap where a full stop must have been intended, so as to break up two sentences. The other oddity of Hammer’s comments is that he states that Bacon ‘wrote at speed’. I can see why he would say such a thing, because the writing slants and may give the appearance of having been written quickly, but I imagine there is no evidence as to how quickly Bacon actually wrote.
6 I am extremely grateful for permission to publish the letters, both to their owners, Mrs Catriona Williams and Mrs Rose Carver, daughters of Sir Colin Anderson, and to the Francis Bacon Estate. Martin Harrison, on behalf of the Estate, has been enormously helpful and patient in answering my enquiries.
7 Faber, 1982.
8 This picture now resides in the Bagshaw Museum in Huddersfield in Yorkshire. The CAS seems to have found it rather difficult to get rid of and it took six years of offering it round before Huddersfield took it (the Tate having rejected it). The records of the CAS in the Tate Archive show that its purchase was approved at a committee meeting on 7 March 1946, together with Colquhoun’s picture Woman with Birdcage, now not far away in Bradford.
9 ‘Recent Paintings by Francis Bacon, Frances Hodgkins, Henry Moore, Matthew Smith, Graham Sutherland’.
10 Hall was at this point still living with his wife and family in Chelsea.
11 Where Bacon is thought to have arrived in the Autumn of 1946. He was to stay there for long periods until 1950.
12 Although the studio was not actually sold, to the painter Robert Buhler, until 1951.
13 Jessie Lightfoot was to die at Cromwell Place in April 1951.
14 Martin Harrison thinks this may be a reference to a picture referred to in the 1964 Bacon catalogue raisonné by Ronald Alley, as Man Standing. Alley dated it tentatively to 1941-1942; Harrison prefers cl943. It was, apparently, still in the studio in 1951 when Robert Buhler acquired it and subsequently sold it.
15 During this gap, according to Peppiatt, op cit, Bacon had managed to persuade Arthur Jeffress to send him £200 on account of unsold work. Money was clearly coming in from a number of different directions. Apparently, Erica Brausen had paid £200 for Painting 1946 in late 1946. On 22 February 1951 he wrote to her asking for a £50 advance from the Hanover Gallery. In addition, Bacon did sometimes win at gambling, mentioning a win of £1,600 to Peppiatt. It can also be assumed that some funding came from Eric Hall. By 1955, the letters recently published from Bacon to the Sainsburys show him, on 3 December, asking for £400. On 1 June 1956 he asked for £450.
16 At some point during 1952 Bacon began an intense relationship with Peter Lacy. But his address was in the village of Hurst in Berkshire. According to Martin Harrison, 30 Sumner Place was at this time owned by Charles Woodroffe, although no connection between Woodroffe and Bacon has been established. It would be interesting to know if any reader is aware of him or of his connection with Bacon.
17 According to Anderson’s daughter, Mrs Williams. In fact, Anderson had bought a very famous early Bacon, the Crucifixion of 1933, from the Redfern Summer Exhibition in 1946 and he also bought a picture called Owls from the Hanover Gallery in 1956