Artists' Lives

Michael Peppiatt is a well-known writer and curator, who began his career as an art critic in London and Paris in the 1960s. Described by the Art Newspaper as ‘the best art writer of his generation’, his previous books include Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma and Francis Bacon: Studies for a Portrait. He is guest curator of the Royal Academy of Arts’ exhibition ‘Francis Bacon: Man and Beast’ (London, 2022).

'Beautifully written, suavely informative and thoughtfully inflected… there is much to cherish and enjoy' - Andrew Lambirth, The Spectator

• Introduction1. Vincent van Gogh: Between Shadows and the Sun2. Aristide Maillol and the Red Count3. The Darker Side of Pierre Bonnard4. Aubrey Beardsley’s Brief Brilliance5. Picasso’s Trousers6. Joan Miró: A Painter Among Poets7. Talking to Sonia Delaunay8. Christian Schad’s Portraits of the 1920s9. A Tribute to Dora Maar10. Alice Bellony Rewald: Portrait of a Muse11. John Richardson, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice12. Henri Michaux Painter-Poet13. Jean Dubuffet’s War on Culture14. From Breton to Beckett: The Writers in Giacometti’s Life15. Remembering Alberto Giacometti. An Interview with Jacques Dupin16. A Broken Dream of Balthus17. The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí18. Looking Back at Nicolas de Staël19. Zoran Music: Art after Dachau20. Dado and the Atrocity of Everyday Life21. In memoriam: Antoni Tàpies22. The Paradox of Francis Bacon23. The Legacy of Genius: Van Gogh and Bacon24. Bacon/Giacometti: Parallel Visions of a Terrible Truth25. Lucian Freud’s Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau) 26. Raymond Mason Confronts the Torrent of Life27. R. B. Kitaj: Paintings as Novels