Bacon and Eliot
For the disjointed putty-like women on the right-hand side panel [ Illustration 4 ] Bacon has again taken inspiration from Eliot as he describes the epileptic prostitute on the bed in the line,
this oval O cropped out with teeth: The sickle motion of the thighs 21
[Illustration 4]
Detail of
Sweeney
Agonistes
Here the influence from Eliot is direct, with Bacon’s figure having a loosely sketched oval form etched into her face as her mouth gapes open when viewed from the side, referring to Eliot’s ‘Oval O cropped ou t with teeth’ . These figures are darker than the ones in the very left-hand panel, highlighting the form of the women in the background’s thigh as it curves up and over fulfilling the shape of Eliot’s ‘sickle’.
How Bacon was inspired by T.S. Eliot’s play Sweeney Agonistes
Sweeney Agonistes was a play published by T.S. Eliot in 1933. In it, he attempts to convey the animalism and amorality he deems characteristic of modern society. Depicting a series of interactions between two women and seven men, Eliot depicts the barbarism of modernity through his recurrent character Sweeney’s description of witnessing and condoning a murder. Eliot contrasts the superficiality of most of the characters (such as the prostitutes Doris and Dusty) with Sweeney, who is presented as sensitive, intelligent, and capable of conveying the play’s denunciation of modern life. Bacon draws on Eliot’s play Sweeney Agonistes in his sensual representation of bodies: lifeless, amorphous, objects of physical violence or engaged in sexua l activity. We are reminded of Sweeney’s brutal fantasies in Sweeney Agonistes : he will be ‘ the cannibal ’ 22 who ‘ will gobble up ’ 23 Doris ‘ the missionary, ’ 24 and he declares that ‘ any man might do a girl in ’. 25 Sweeney Agonistes is also channelled through the figure standing in the right-hand panel looking upon the convulsing figures on the bed with a telephone to his ear. It’s modelled on the character Pereia, the brothel owner from Sweeney Agonistes who in the fragmentary play pays the rent on the phone while remaining just off stage. Here, his role appears to be combined with Sweeney himself, who in Sweeney Erect voyeuristically watches
21 Eliot 1963: 44. 22 Ibid.:130.
23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid.: 134.
236
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator