A spark like Baconâs can also be a curse. Life is difficult for those whose skins are thin, and whose minds seldom find rest. âHe was wound very tightly,â says Stevens. âLike many artists, he didnât have filters. And he was shy, lonely and often very ill, so he created this persona.â
In that, Bacon was helped by the fact that he was naturally incredibly charming and, in his youth, extraordinarily physically beautiful. For those of us familiar with the lined, round-faced Bacon of his most famous older years, he had had a beauty that the authors describe as âalmost feminine . . . an allure so delicate . . . â In 1927 he was stopped in a Berlin street by photographer, Helmar Lerski, who asked him to sit for a portrait.