CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: Assessment Task1 - Visual Analysis

Sophie  Harvey
Tutor: Vicky  Cull
Word  Count: 477

In this essay I am going to look at a painting by Francis Bacon and also a still shot from a film by director Sergei Eisenstein. I will analyse what I think the pieces refer to and anything they may have in common.


Francis Bacon’s Self Portrait, created in 1971, is a very expressive painting. It was created by using oil on canvas. The dreary darkness of the blues, greys, purples, reds and blacks used give off a feeling of anger and discontent, which is backed up by the harsh brush strokes. These brush strokes distort the face giving the painting an abstract aspect. Whilst the features of the face are visible, it is mainly the lighter highlights of white and yellow that define the image as a face. The solely black background indicates isolation and loneliness; perhaps this tells of how Bacon was feeling at the time of making this piece of work. Bacon was a fan of Picasso’s work, and this is a clear influence in his work, including this painting. He admired the way Picasso ignored the rules of figure painting, but Bacon has gone even further in the way he portrays the face and body through the feelings he produces in his work. I really like the disturbing look and aura of this oil painting and the unique vision used to create the image.


The second image is a still from a silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein called Battleship Potemkin shows a (man dressed as a) woman screaming in shock from seeing her son being shot and trampled on by Tsarist officers on the Odessa steps during the rebellion of Russian battleship Potemkin crew members against the Tsar. However, to someone who has not seen the film, this particular shot still portrays emotions of terror and distress through the open gasp of the mouth and the popping of the eyes. As well these features, the messy, dishevelled hair perhaps indicates stress and a frantic nature at this point in the film. The film was created in 1925 and is therefore in black and white. The tone of the film gives, like Bacon’s self portrait, quite a disturbing effect. This is backed up by the fact that the image is focused on the woman’s expression which, I think, is what makes this still so moving. 


Although the media used to create these images are very different, and the periods of time are fairly distant, Bacon’s self portrait and Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin still both have similar aspects in the way they look and the emotions they convey. They both give a disturbing feel through the colours and the way the pictures are presented. Bacon has even stated that Battleship Potemkin was a great influence in his own work. One can see this influence in the exaggerated expressions, darkness and tones of both works.