1960
In early January, Bacon leaves St. Ives and returns to London.
In January, Cecil Beaton takes a series of snapshots of Bacon in his studio at 9 Overstrand Mansions, Battersea.
On 23 March, Marlborough Fine Art, London, opens its first exhibition devoted to Bacon, which runs until late April.
Over the summer, Bacon is in Tangier with Ron Belton.
In the summer, he writes to Denis Wirth-Miller from Monaco.
In the early 1960s, Bacon commissions a series of photos of his close friends and lovers from the English photographer John Deakin, to use as source material.
Also in this period, he meets the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti in a Paris café. Through their mutual friend, Isabel Rawsthorne, the two men strike up a friendship which is to last for the rest of their lives.
1961
On 2 June, Bacon attends the private view of the exhibition ‘Recent Australian Painting’ at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. It is followed by a dinner at the White Tower. The guest list includes Roy de Maistre, Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan, Bryan Robertson, Keith Vaughan and Brett Whiteley.
In the summer, Bacon visits Tangier.
On 8 November, Bacon moves to 7 Reece Mews, South Kensington, which is to remain his London studio and residence until his death.
1962
24 May – 1 July: At the age of 52, Bacon has his first retrospective at the Tate Gallery, London, for which he paints Three Studies for a Crucifixion (1962), a work which will be acquired by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1964. On the opening day of the show, a telegram informs him of Peter’s Lacy’s death the previous day (23 May) in Tangier. The exhibition then travels to the Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany; the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy; the Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
On 13 July, Harry Fischer, co-founder of Marlborough Fine Art, writes to Bacon to tell him that Picasso was ‘very impressed’ by the catalogue of his exhibition at the Tate.
On 10 August, Bacon is in Wivenhoe, Essex.
In October, he records his first interview with David Sylvester for BBC Radio.
11 – 12 November: Bacon is in Wivenhoe.
1963
In June, Bacon sends a postcard to David Sylvester from Monaco.
27 July – 10 August: Bacon has a joint exhibition with Henry Moore at Marlborough Fine Art, London.
September – October: Bacon goes to Tangier, Marseille and Monaco.
In the autumn, he meets George Dyer, who becomes his lover and muse.
18 October 1963 – 12 January 1964: A retrospective of Bacon’s work is mounted by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and subsequently shown at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Contemporary Arts Association, Houston.
1964
Bacon travels to Monaco, Malta, Sicily and Naples with George Dyer.
In the autumn, the first catalogue raisonné of Bacon’s work is published. It is edited by Ronald Alley and John Rothenstein, the director of the Tate Gallery.
Bacon paints Study for a Portrait (Isabel Rawsthorne), the first clearly identifiable portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne, one of his closest friends since the late 1940s and the subject of several of his paintings.
1965
23 January – 21 February: An important Bacon retrospective comprising 61 paintings is held by the Kunstverein, Hamburg. The exhibition subsequently travels to Stockholm and Dublin.
In May, Bacon goes to Athens on the Orient Express with George Dyer and John Deakin. They then visit Crete. Deakin takes many photos on this trip.
On 16 July, at the opening of the Giacometti retrospective at the Tate Gallery, Bacon meets Michel Leiris, who is to become a close friend and one of the most important writers on Bacon’s art.
1966
In January, Bacon buys a studio at 45c Roland Gardens, South Kensington, London.
In February, Bacon stays in Wivenhoe.
On 23 May, he sees Michel Leiris again in Paris.
Bacon spends the summer with Dyer in Tangier.
In late September, he stays at the Hotel Ruhl in Nice, for ten days.
15 November – 31 December: An exhibition of Bacon’s recent paintings is organised at the Galerie Maeght, Paris. He attends the private view with George Dyer, Sonia Orwell, David Plante, Isabel Rawsthorne and Stephen Spender. The catalogue preface is written by Michel Leiris. The gallery publishes an issue of the magazine Derrière le miroir devoted to Bacon.
Bacon and Dyer stay at a hotel in Maussane, in the Alpilles, in southern France. They go to the Musée Granet, in Aix-en-Provence, to see Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait (c. 1659).
1967
In early March, Bacon visits his family in South Africa.
8 March – 14 April: an exhibition of Bacon’s works is organised at Marlborough Fine Art, London.
Bacon meets the American photographer Peter Beard at Marlborough Fine Art during his exhibition.
In May, Bacon and Dyer stay in Wivenhoe.
In June, Bacon is awarded the Rubens Prize of the City of Siegen, Germany. He donates the prize money as a contribution to the restoration of artworks damaged by the November 1966 floods in Florence.
During the summer, Bacon, Dyer and Wirth-Miller stay at the Domaine de Saint-Estève, near Lambesc, Provence, with Anne Dunn and Rodrigo Moynihan.
1968
In January, Bacon dines with David Sylvester, Willem de Kooning and other friends.
In April, Bacon writes to Ernst Beyeler from Hotel Westminster, Nice.
In May, Bacon and Dyer visit Monaco and Antibes.
That same month, Bacon sends a letter from Nice to Michel Leiris.
In September, Bacon visits his mother, who is ill, in South Africa. On the way back, he stops in Marseille on 23 October.
In November, he goes to New York with George Dyer for his exhibition at the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery (11 November – 7 December). This is his first visit to the United States. Dyer attempts suicide in the Algonquin Hotel, where the couple are staying.
In December, George Dyer lays waste to Bacon’s studio and living quarters at 7 Reece Mews after a violent quarrel with the artist.
Major repairs are required, and Bacon leaves his studio to live and work in Denis Wirth‑Miller and Richard Chopping’s house in Wivenhoe.
1969
In January, Bacon is lent a studio until August by the Royal College of Art through the efforts of Richard Chopping, who teaches there.
On 29 September, Bacon purchases 80 Narrow Street, Limehouse, a house on the Thames, in London’s East End.
From 7 to 21 October, Bacon travels in South Africa.
