Leaving behind the austerity and rubble of postwar London, Francis Bacon spent the years between 1946 and 1950 living on the French Riviera, moving between the beach and Monte Carlo’s casinos. During this time, he took an interest in Velazquez’s Portrait of Innocent X (circa 1650) and decided to create his own version but in purple vestments and dark hues. “I don’t know how the copy of the Velasquez will turn out,” he wrote in a letter to his friend Graham Sutherland. “I have practically finished one I think. . . . it is thrilling to paint from a picture which really excites you.” Bacon would create many more papal images. In this exhibition, his very first painting from that Monte Carlo winter—Landscape with Pope/Dictator (1946)—is on view for the first time in history. Its run complements “Francis Bacon: Man and Beast,” now on at the Royal Academy. —Elena Clavarino