Where do you begin when you want to move an entire studio, including the walls, and everything in the room? In some ways Francis Bacon’s studio was like a jigsaw puzzle. A specially trained team of people, including archaeologists, noted the exact location of everything in the studio by making drawings and maps of the studio. There were over 7000 items in Francis Bacon’s studio and these included his brushes, paint tubes, drawings, canvases, music records, photographs, books and letters he had written and received from his friends. When drawings and photographs of their location were made, all Francis Bacon’s belongings were carefully placed in boxes and brought to Dublin.
In Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane each item was studied and the information gathered was put onto a computer database so more can be learned about how Francis Bacon painted and what his inspirations were. The studio was reconstructed and each item was carefully replaced piece by piece exactly where it was.