The loan of two important early paintings by the British artist Francis Bacon (1909-1992) provides a rare opportunity to look at the work of this artist in a small but powerful display.

Francis Bacon was without doubt the greatest British painter of the post-war period; what marks him out is his ability to create searing, even merciless images of humanity that expose our basic and often basest instincts.

Bacon's pictures have the power to rivet our attention, to unnerve us and to force us to consider some of the unpalatable truths that lie beneath everyday life. Even though these works were painted some seventy years ago, they still shock today.