In the fragment De Interpretatione Naturae Prooemium (written probably about 1603) Bacon analyses his own mental character and establishes his goals, which were threefold: discovery of truth, service to his country, and service to the church. Knowing that a prestigious post would aid him toward these ends, in 1580 he applied, through his uncle, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, for a post at court that might enable him to devote himself to a life of learning. His application failed, and for the next two years he worked quietly at Gray's Inn giving himself seriously to the study of law, until admitted as an outer barrister in 1582. In 1584 he took his seat in the English Parliament as member for Melcombe in Dorset, and subsequently for Taunton (1586). He wrote on the condition of parties in the church, and he wrote down his thoughts on philosophical reform in the lost tract, Temporis Partus Maximus, but he failed to obtain a position of the kind he thought necessary for success. Harrison, Martin; Daniels, Rebecca. Francis Bacon Incunabula. London: Thames & Hudson, 2009. ISBN 978-0-500-09344-3 Thomas-Corr, Johanna (13 January 2021). "Max Porter's The Death of Francis Bacon: a novelist takes on the painter's final days". New Statesman . Retrieved 4 November 2023.

The Estate of Francis Bacon | Bacon's World". 31 January 2008. Archived from the original on 31 January 2008 . Retrieved 9 November 2020.

Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Francis Bacon Studio, History of Studio Relocation". Hughlane.ie. Archived from the original on 5 August 2010 . Retrieved 26 September 2011. Wrathall, Claire (6 July 2016). "Francis Bacon's Monaco magic is highlighted in a new exhibition". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 23 October 2016 . Retrieved 22 October 2016. On June 27, 1576, he and Anthony were entered de societate magistrorum at Gray's Inn (Inn of Court), and a few months later they went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the English ambassador at Paris. The disturbed state of government and society in France under Henry III of France afforded him valuable political instruction. When the triptych, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion 1944, was first exhibited at the end of the war in 1945, it secured Bacon’s reputation. Chris Stephens, Head of Displays and Lead Curator, Modern British Art at Tate Britain called the work ‘a turning point in the history of British art. It’s one of the masterpieces in the Tate’s collection… It’s a work that was seen immediately as a brutally frank and horrifically pessimistic response to the Second World War. It was first exhibited in April 1945, and though the two were not directly related, the fact that this painting was unveiled the month that the concentration camps were revealed to the world, inevitably led to the way it has been understood as a statement of human brutality and suffering.’

Matthews, Nieves. Francis Bacon: The History of a Character Assassination. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. ISBN 0300064411Delarge, Jean-Pierre. "Bacon, Francis"[The Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Plastic Arts]. Dictionnaire des arts plastiques modernes et contemporains (in French). Delarge. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021 . Retrieved 7 December 2020. A first, incomplete catalogue raisonné was compiled by curator Ronald Alley in 1964. [87] In 2016, a five-volume Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné, documenting 584 paintings by Bacon, was released by Martin Harrison and others. [87] See also [ edit ]