1909 Born in Dublin to English parents. He is brought up in Ireland. Because of ill health he receives very little formal education.
1927 Leaves home – lives in Berlin (then the capital of European decadence) and in Paris.
1929 Returns to London. Tries his hand at interior decoration and painting but the next ten years are characterised by drift.
1943 Commits himself to becoming a full-time artist having been excused military service as a result of his asthma.
1945 Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion causes a sensation when first exhibited at the Lefevre Gallery in London.
1950’s Develops an international reputation.
1960’s His partner George Dyer becomes the subject of many paintings.
1971 Dyer dies the day before the opening of a major retrospective of Bacon’s work in Paris.
1992 Bacon dies during a visit to Madrid.
1944 Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, London, Tate
1946 Painting, New York, MOMA
1949 Head VI, Arts Council of Britain
1952 Study for a Crouching Nude, Detroit, Institute of Arts
1953 Study after Velàsquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, Des Moines, Des Moines Art Center
1953 Man with Dog, Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery
1954 Figure with Meat, Chicago, Art Institute
1954 Man in Blue, Vienna, Museum of Modern Art
1959 Two Figures in a Room, Norwich, University of East Anglia, Sainsbury Collection
1962 Three Studies for a Crucifixion, New York, Guggenheim Museum
1964 Three Figures in a Room, Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou
1965 Portrait Of Henrietta Moraes on a Blue Couch, Manchester City Art Gallery
1966 Study of Isabel Rawsthorne, Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou
1967 Three Studies of Isabel Rawsthorne, Berlin, Staatliche Museen
1968 Two Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer, Helsinki, Art Museum Ateneum
1969 Study for Bullfight No1, London, Royal College of Art
1971 Self Portrait, Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou
1979 Sphinx-Portrait of Muriel Belcher, Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art
1982 Study of the Human Body, Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou