At the heart of the MB Art Collection is a selection of Francis Bacon’s paintings from the late 1920s to the late 1960s, including the largest collection of Bacon’s early works: his first two works ‘Watercolour’ (1929) and ‘Gouache’ (1929) and his first oil on canvas ‘Painting’ (c.1930). The founder has also acquired paintings by artists who influenced Bacon like Walter Sickert, or whom Bacon rubbed shoulders with – such as Roy de Maistre, Denis Wirth-Miller, Vladimir Veličković, Louis le Brocquy, Henry Moore, Lucian Freud and Alberto Giacometti. Works by artists who were inspired by Bacon as a model, like César, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Maggi Hambling, Clare Shenstone and Richard Hamilton, or were influenced by his work, namely R. B. Kitaj, Robert Longo and Paul Rebeyrolle, complete the collection.

A selection of works by Francis Bacon from the collection: