Barry Joule (born 1954/1955) is a Canadian writer, and a long-time friend of the artist

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

who died in 1992 and left a substantial amount of his archive material to Joule. He was also a friend of the dancer

Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is widely regarded as the preeminent male ballet dancer of his generation as well as one of the greatest ballet dancers of all ...

and model

Toto Koopman Catharina "Toto" Koopman (28 October 1908 – 27 August 1991) was a Dutch-Javanese model who worked in Paris prior to World War II. During that war she served as a spy for the Italian Resistance and was captured and held prisoner in the Rave ...

Association with Francis Bacon

Joule, a Canadian journalist, used to live near to Bacon's home and studio at 7 Reece Mews,

South Kensington South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the ra ...

, London, in 1978, when they met and became close friends. Bacon asked Joule to destroy one of two paintings in his studio, saying that it was the "one on the left". Joule duly cut it from its frame and burnt it, only to receive a "furious" phone call some hours later at 4 am that he had burnt the wrong one (Bacon apparently had confused his left and right). As of 2018, the destroyed artwork would have been worth about £35 million. In September 2019, Joule said that he was the model for Bacon's 1980s series of seven paintings depicting "a male torso and legs, naked except for sports shoes and cricket pads." In one of the paintings, Joule thought that he was recognisable, so Bacon painted out his head, "There, now I think you look much better this way – just the essentials here ... and absolutely no head to worry about. I hope you are happy now."

The Tate collection

In 2004, Joule donated more than 1,200 sketches, photographs and documents to the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

, then estimated to be worth £20 million. Joule kept "a small number of items", and as of 2004 was planning to bequeath them to the Tate at some later date. In August 2021, Joule threatened to cancel his gift to the Tate, saying that the gallery had failed to fulfill its pledges to mount exhibitions of the donated items. He also said that he could cancel a planned bequest to the Tate of a 1936 self-portrait and nine other Bacon paintings from the same period.

Association with Rudolf Nureyev and Toto Koopman

Joule was a friend of the dancer

, and moved into his Paris apartment in mid-September 1992 to help care for him. He was also friends with the model

, and inherited from both of them. Joule wrote Nureyev's obituary for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''.

Appearances

In 2004, Joule appeared in the film ''Strange World of Barry Who?'', directed by

Margy Kinmonth Margy Kinmonth is a British film director and producer. Covering a wide range of genres, her award-winning films include feature documentaries ''Revolution: New Art for a New World'', ''Hermitage Revealed'', ''Royal Paintbox'' with Charles III, K ...

. Soon after it was shown on

BBC4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

, professional art thieves broke into his distinctive 15th-century home in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

, France, and stole a Bacon ''Pope'' painting worth about £8 million. Joule says that he had told the programme makers not to film the outside of his house or the painting for reasons of security, as it was too expensive to insure. In 2017, he appeared in the film ''Francis Bacon: A Brush with Violence'', directed by

Richard Curson Smith Richard Curson Smith is a British television director and producer. He has BAFTA, Emmy, RTS, Grierson, Real Screen, Broadcast, CSA and Prix Italia awards and nominations. He heads his own production company, Absinthe Film Entertainment and is ma ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joule, Barry Living people Muses (persons) Canadian expatriates in England 1950s births 20th-century Canadian journalists 21st-century Canadian journalists