A biographical drama depicting the life of painter Francis Bacon, critically acclaimed as the outstanding British painter of the latter half of the 20th century.

"Picasso & Matisse. Manet & Degas. Pollack & de Kooning. Lucian Freud & Francis Bacon. This is the story of four pairs of artists-- each linked by friendship and a spirit of competitiveness. Taken together, they form an impressive lineage stretching across more than 150 years. But in each case, these relationships had a flashpoint, a damaging psychological event that seemed to mark both an end and a new beginning, a break that led onto new creative...

The story of a self-absorbed painter and his younger lover begins when he is awakened by a burglar. Sizing up the thief as a piece of rough trade, he makes a proposition: if the robber sheds his clothes and goes to bed with him, he can have anything he wants.

"A great painter lies on his deathbed, synapses firing, writhing and reveling in pleasure and pain as a lifetime of chaotic and grotesque sense memories wash over and envelop him. In this bold and brilliant short work of experimental fiction by the author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny, Max Porter inhabits Francis Bacon in his final moments, translating into seven extraordinary written pictures the explosive final workings of the artist's...

"Told for the first time in graphic novel form, the story of Francis Bacon's life is as complex, colorful, and highly charged as his paintings. Drawn in shades of mauve, red, yellow, and blue that distinguished his palette, these illustrations weave together a troubling but compassionate narrative, one that draws on the tragic events of Bacon's childhood and youth, as well as reflecting the profoundly passionate yearnings of the artist he became."--...