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Francis Bacon: Master or Servant?

17 April 2015

The late Francis Bacon was an artist compelled to work by his obsession with the paintings of the masters. Now an exhibition originally curated by the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, positions his work alongside old and modern masters including Rembrandt, Velázquez, Cézanne, Titian, Michelangelo, Rodin, Van Gogh, Picasso and Matisse.

Journalist and broadcaster Sarfraz Manzoor visited the show in Norwich to assess the similarities and differences between Bacon and five of the masters featured.

Watch the film below as well as a series of archive films, including an unbroadcast television pilot in which Bacon talks about his contemporaries in the art world, his working practices and his personal philosophies - such as his belief that true abstract painting is nothing more than 'lyrical, charming and decorative'.

We also feature Bacon on art and love, Christianity and his crucifixion paintings, the meaning of painting itself and reflecting on artists such as Cézanne and Rembrandt.

Take a look at some of the juxtapositions between the paintings of Bacon and The Masters. Is he master, servant or equal? Send us your thoughts @BBCArts or on Facebook.

Francis Bacon and The Masters is at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, 18 April - 26 July 2015.

Francis Bacon at the Tate Gallery in 1985 | Getty Images

Francis Bacon and The Masters

Francis Bacon & The Masters

Sarfraz Manzoor views the Norwich exhibition which juxtaposes Bacon with the masters

The Francis Bacon and The Masters film was produced for the Art Fund by Northern Town.

Unseen, 1965 / Fragments of a Portrait, 1966

Stripped Down to What's Real, 1971

Crucifixions

Francis Bacon | Crucifixion, 1933 | © The Estate of Francis Bacon / DACS 2015
Alonso Cano | The Crucifixion, 1638 | The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Side-by-Side | Francis Bacon and The Masters

Paul Cézanne | Self-Portrait in a Cap, c. 1873 | The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg | Francis Bacon | Head of a Man, 1960 | Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts © The Estate of Francis Bacon / DACS 2015
Chaïm Soutine | Self-Portrait. c. 1920–1 | The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg | Francis Bacon | Head of a Man, 1960 | Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts © The Estate of Francis Bacon / DACS 2015
Francis Bacon | Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne, 1966 | Tate Collection © The Estate of Francis Bacon / DACS 2015 | Pablo Picasso | A Young Lady, 1909 | The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Rembrandt | Portrait of an Old Man | 1654 | The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg | Francis Bacon | Portrait of R.J. Sainsbury, 1955 | © The Estate of Francis Bacon / DACS 2015.