Princess Grace Irish Library Lecture: Margarita Cappock

Please join us for the second lecture in our partnership with the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco, featuring Margarita Cappock.

This illustrated lecture will explore the early life in Ireland of the celebrated artist Francis Bacon (1909-1992) and the complex relationship the artist had with Ireland, the land of his birth. It will also outline the significance of Bacon’s relationships with Irish writers, artists and photographers during his lifetime.

Bacon was born at 63 Lower Baggot Street in Dublin. He was the second of five children born to English parents who had settled in Ireland at the beginning of the twentieth century. Bacon spent his early life in County Kildare and County Laois, with shorter stays in England during the First World War. The Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) and Civil War (1922-23) cast a shadow of violence over the countryside, particularly for the Protestant gentry such as the Bacons.

Contrary to the common belief that Francis Bacon fled Ireland at 16 years of age, never to return, in 1929 he travelled to the west of Ireland with his companion and first patron, Eric Allden. This little-known trip reveals how influential Ireland was for Bacon and how the origins of Bacon’s artistic life can be found in Ireland. His earliest surviving painting can be traced to the depths of Connemara in the west of Ireland.

Dr. Margarita Cappock is an art historian, curator and writer. A graduate of University College, Dublin she was formerly Head of Collections at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin which she joined in 1999 as Project Manager of the Francis Bacon Studio and Archive. There she led the team and coordinated the documentation and reconstruction of Bacon's Reece Mews studio and its contents.

She is the author of the book Francis Bacon's Studio (Merrell Publishers, London and New York, 2005), which is the definitive text on the posthumous contents of Bacon’s studio and has written extensively on Francis Bacon and Irish, British and American Artists for The Burlington Magazine, the Irish Arts Review and other international academic journals and exhibition catalogues. She has lectured worldwide on Francis Bacon’s studio and acted as curatorial advisor for international exhibitions on Francis Bacon.

She has contributed to several documentaries and most recently was concept originator and co-presenter with Adam Clayton of U2 on the documentary, Francis Bacon: The Outsider which aired on Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ. She was Chair of ICOM Ireland from 2020 to 2023. In 2023, she was the Ireland Funds Academic in Residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco.

Margarita writes extensively on Irish art and artists, both historic and contemporary. She has a particular interest in women artists and was the main author and editor of the publication on Sarah Cecilia Harrison (1863-1941), Artist, Social Campaigner and City Councillor (Four Courts Press, 2022). She has recently been working on the development of a project to establish a proposed Harry Clarke Museum of Irish Stained Glass in Dublin.

Host or Publisher Glucksman Ireland House NYU