Examining artworks attributed to Francis Bacon ( 1909-1992 ) to aid authentication

The Francis Bacon research project at Northumbria University (2007-13) was an example of multidisciplinary collaboration between researchers specialised in art history, technical art history and conservation science for a catalogue raisonné. Over the past 45 years, a few of the paintings in the previous Francis Bacon catalogue raisonné (1964) have been destroyed or ‘lost’, while some early works have reappeared which had been omitted or were believed to have been destroyed by the artist. Since many of these paintings are entirely or partly undocumented, the Francis Bacon research project has been especially helpful in terms of providing terminus dates and an accurate description of media for the editors of the forthcoming new Francis Bacon catalogue raisonné. This paper illuminates the approach during the project from the viewpoint of the art technical researcher and analyst, presents exemplary findings and illustrates the values and boundaries of material analysis and technical examination as auxiliary sciences to art historical investigations. The importance of the contextualisation of the analytical results is highlighted.