Francis Bacon was born in Dublin in 1909 and spent most of his life in London's Soho neighborhood. Despite his existentialist and dark vision that shines through in his artistic production, in everyday life Bacon was a charismatic man, a cultured intellectual and a bon vivant, who spent his life "eating, drinking and gambling" together with inseparable friends such as Lucian Freud, John Deakin, Muriel Belcher, Henrietta Moraes, Daniel Farson, Tom Baker and Jeffrey Bernard. Presenting works from the 1950s onwards, this exhibition explores Francis Bacon's deep connection to portraiture and chronicles how the Irish artist challenged traditional definitions of this pictorial genre. Painter of violence and sadism, of flesh and blood, Francis Bacon is also known as a painter of life. His works, known for their flayed tones and dark images, are highly prized and among the most expensive in the world.