It was in Paris in 1927, at an exhibition dedicated to Picasso, that Francis Bacon grasped his vocation as a painter. In 1946, he moved to Monaco on the French Riviera where he lived for four years, his time in the Principality marking a turning point in his art; with his popes series, he became a painter of the human figure. In Paris he befriended artists and intellectuals, such as Giacometti and Leiris, whilst the city would become the setting for the crystalisation of his reputation in 1971 with the retrospective at the Grand Palais. In 1975, Bacon would take a studio in the Marais district. This bilingual publication co-published by Albin Michel and The Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation tells of Bacon s deep ties with France and Monaco, and has been overseen by Martin Harrison, author of Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonne and curator of the coinciding exhibition Francis Bacon, Monaco et la culture franc aise which runs at Grimaldi Forum, Monaco from 2 July 2016 until 4 September 2016. Harrison will also curate a sister exhibition, Francis Bacon: From Picasso to Vela zquez, which runs at Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao from 30 September 2016 until 8 January 2017.
