This frank portrait of Anglo-Irish painter Francis Bacon (1909-92) contains enough juicy details about his lurid sex life and hard partying to satisfy even the most avid consumers of art-world gossip. But art critic Michael Peppiatt, who knew Bacon personally, also provides insightful analyses of his paintings and the nerve their anguished subject matter and technique struck in the uneasy years following World War II. In addition, Peppiatt illuminates the autobiographical roots of powerful works such asPope I,Three Studies for a Crucifixion, andIn Memory of George Dyer.