Bacon, Francis (1909-1992)
Reclining Woman
1961
Oil on canvas, 198.8 × 141.6 cm
Tate Britain, London
© Estate of Francis Bacon
In spite of the title, the figure in this painting appears to have been originally intended as a man. The male genitalia were covered over with a thin layer of paint. Unusually, the figure was cut from another canvas and pasted onto this one, on which the background was painted. Male nudes appeared in many of Bacon‘s paintings. He may have accepted the misidentification of this figure as a way of disguising its implicitly homoerotic imagery at a time when homosexuality was illegal. (Tate)