Statue of Francis Bacon by William Theed, Burlington Gardens

What it is

This is a 2024 photograph by Daderot, shared on Wikimedia Commons, of a statue of Francis Bacon by William Theed the Younger. The statue is a 19th-century marble work, placed at 6 Burlington Gardens in London. The photograph shows a bearded man in Elizabethan-style dress, with a tall lace ruff, a long cloak and a book in one hand. He stands in an arched niche, and the base reads BACON.

Why it matters

The statue was made long after Bacon's death, during the 19th century, when writers and artists often created images of past thinkers and statesmen. Its costume and book point to Bacon as a writer and a figure of the Elizabethan age. What the statue shows is how later makers pictured him, and it does not show how he actually looked or dressed.

Look closer

• Which objects does the statue use to tell us who Bacon was, and what do they emphasize?
• Why might a 19th-century sculptor dress a famous man in Elizabethan clothing?
• What does a single stone figure leave out about his work and his conflicts?