Francis Bacon’s father bred horses, and he himself was fascinated by the movement of animals, studying wildlife books and Eadweard Muybridge’s 19th-century photographs of mammals in motion. Bacon felt that animal behavior—uninhibited, honest—was a clue to the hidden truths in human nature, and he drew energy from the beast’s raw expression. This survey spans 50 years of the Irish-born artist’s career, and includes a trio of bullfight paintings that have never before been exhibited together. —E.C.

Francis Bacon: Man and Beast was featured in the January 29, 2022 issue of Air Mail. Read on