Like a caged animal

One of the most quintessentially animal-like of Francis Bacon’s early(1948). The subject is ostensibly human, although—despite the title—it represents only part of a head, most strikingly an open mouth displaying bared and jagged teeth. To further the ambiguity, this alarming being is contained within a structure that might be a bedstead, but also resembles a cage—a favourite motif of the artist’s. This recalls his fondness for using the word ‘trap’ to express the painter’s capture of a subject. Whatever this image is of, it does look like something that has been trapped.