Francis Bacon Posters – Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe (1968) Art Print

This is one of the most uncompromising Francis Bacon posters in the MerchFuse catalog — a high-quality reproduction of Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe, painted in 1968 and one of the most sustained investigations of the body-under-pressure in his entire oeuvre. The composition is characteristically Baconian in its architecture: a nude figure collapsed onto a flat surface — a bed, a table, a slab — enclosed within the spatial cage of thin geometric lines Bacon used throughout the 1960s to isolate and focus the figure. The syringe protrudes from the upper arm, not as medical detail but as image of violation — something external and metallic entering flesh. The figure itself is smeared and pulled, the face dissolved into suggestion, the body simultaneously recognisable and grotesque. This is not a Francis Bacon painting that allows aesthetic distance: it puts the physical fact of a body — fragile, penetrable, mortal — at the centre of the frame and refuses to look away.

Francis Bacon kept medical textbooks, surgical atlases, and X-ray photographs in his Reece Mews studio alongside reproductions of Muybridge’s motion studies and Eisenstein’s film stills. The hypodermic syringe in this lying figure print is not an anomaly in his work — it is a logical extension of his sustained interest in the body as something examined, probed, and documented by external forces. His Studies from the Human Body, his Screaming Pope series, and the entire lying figure series from the late 1950s through the 1970s all interrogate the classical reclining nude not as an object of beauty but as a site of existential exposure. Among Francis Bacon paintings, the lying figure series represents his most direct engagement with Eadweard Muybridge’s sequential nude studies — the figure laid flat, rotated, examined from every angle, stripped of dignity and returned only with the dignity of the paint itself.

Why This Francis Bacon Poster Belongs in a Serious Art Collection

• The painting’s place in the Bacon canon: Painted in 1968 — two years after his retrospective at the Marlborough Gallery and the same year as his Grand Palais retrospective was being planned — this is Francis Bacon at the apex of his international recognition, painting with the full command of a career’s accumulated technique. Among Francis Bacon prints available at MerchFuse, this lying figure variant represents his figure work at its most extreme and most technically sophisticated. The smeared impasto of the flesh, the precision of the syringe’s metallic detail against the soft distortion of the body, the tonal control of the dark ground — all are visible in a quality museum-grade reproduction.
• The lying figure series in context: Bacon returned to the lying figure composition throughout his career — the Lying Figure (1969) poster and the Lying Figure expressionist wall print both available at MerchFuse show the evolution of this obsession across his middle period. Display this 1968 Version No. 2 alongside the 1969 variant to see how Bacon developed a single compositional problem across consecutive years — a study in artistic obsession that gives any collection an interpretive anchor.
• For collectors of Francis Bacon art prints: MerchFuse carries one of the most comprehensive collections of Francis Bacon art prints available online — from early works to the late triptychs. This lying figure print is among the most sought-after in the catalog precisely because the painting it reproduces occupies such a distinctive position in the history of post-war British art: confrontational, technically masterful, and impossible to contextualise as merely decorative.
• Print quality: Printed on 200 GSM museum-grade matte paper with fade-resistant archival inks. Bacon’s characteristic palette — deep blacks and olivine grounds, the warm flesh tones of the distorted body, the cold metallic silver-grey of the syringe — requires a paper stock that holds the full tonal range without crushing shadow detail or bleeding highlights. Museum-grade matte does this with complete fidelity. Gloss paper would destroy the mid-tones. Zero glare under glass or framed open.
• Sizes: Seven sizes from 9×11″ to 24×36″, all standard frame-ready. The painting’s vertical spatial tension reads most powerfully at 18×24″ and above. Digital download also available at $3.90 (300 DPI, PDF/JPG).
• Great gift for: Collectors building a comprehensive Francis Bacon paintings wall display, students of post-war British art history, admirers of the existentialist figurative tradition from Giacometti through Lucian Freud, and anyone who believes that art’s highest function is to confront rather than comfort.

Building a Francis Bacon Paintings Display at MerchFuse

This lying figure print pairs naturally with others in the Francis Bacon prints collection at MerchFuse that explore his engagement with the exposed, examined body: the Study from the Human Body iconic print, the Studies of the Human Body 1980 print, and the Study of a Human Body 1984 poster form a sustained investigation of the same subject across two decades of Bacon’s career. For the visceral psychological intensity of the screaming figure works, pair with the Screaming Beast Figure expressionist poster and the Study After Velázquez screaming figure print. For a thematic group centered on bodily distortion and the portrait, the Untitled Crouching Nude on Rail poster — Bacon’s other signature cage-and-figure composition — provides a direct visual counterpart to this lying figure print.

The Francis Bacon Prints Collection at MerchFuse

MerchFuse holds one of the most extensive online collections of Francis Bacon paintings in reproduction — across every major period and series, from the 1944 Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion to the final triptychs of the late 1980s. For those building a chronological display of his development, explore the Painting 1946 expressionist print, the Triptych 1983 bold orange figure study, and the Triptych August 1972 expressionist print — three anchor points across four decades that map the full arc of his career. For exhibition poster rarities, the 1975 Metropolitan Museum exhibition poster and the Marlborough Gallery 1984 exhibition poster are also available.

Print & Material Details

Every MerchFuse poster is printed on 200 GSM museum-grade matte paper using fade-resistant archival inks. Colours stay true, blacks stay deep, and the matte finish eliminates glare whether framed under glass or mounted open. All seven sizes use standard frame dimensions — no custom framing required. Prefer to print your own? The digital download gives you a 300 DPI high-resolution file (PDF/JPG) for $3.90.

This is a high-quality fine art reproduction for personal display and collection. It is not an original artwork and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially licensed by the Francis Bacon estate or any rights holder. All Bacon works are © The Estate of Francis Bacon / DACS.