Statue of Francis Bacon outside Gray's Inn Library

What it is

This is a photograph taken by Charles Hoffman in 2012 and shared on Wikimedia Commons. It shows a bronze statue of a standing figure on a stone pedestal, set on a lawn in front of a brick building with white-framed windows and a dark roof. The statue is a later memorial to Francis Bacon, not an image made during his lifetime. The facts do not name the sculptor or date the statue.

Why it matters

Gray's Inn is one of the Inns of Court, where lawyers trained. Bacon studied law there after he returned from France in 1579, according to the record of his life. A statue placed outside its library shows how the institution chose to honor him. The memorial tells us more about later ideas of his importance than about his own daily life.

Look closer

• Why might an institution place a statue of a former student in front of its library?
• What does the setting, a library and a lawn, suggest about how Bacon is remembered?
• What does a bronze statue leave out about the person it honors?