Bacon took up painting in his late 30s, having drifted as an interior decorator, "bon vivant" and gambler.
 He said that his artistic career was delayed because he spent too long looking for subject matter that could sustain his interest.
 His breakthrough came with the 1944 triptych "Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion", which sealed his reputation as a uniquely bleak chronicler of the human condition.
 From the mid-1960s he mainly produced portraits of friends and drinking companions, either as single or triptych panels.
 Following the 1971 suicide of his lover George Dyer, his art became more sombre, inward-looking and preoccupied with the passage of time and death.
 The climax of this later period is marked by masterpieces, including his 1982's "Study for Self-Portrait" and "Study for a Self-Portrait—Triptych, 1985–86".
The Ionian Bank (IB) was a British overseas bank that investors established in 1839 to operate in the Ionian Isles, which was then a British Protectorate.
 It served also as the central bank of the United States of the Ionian Islands.
 IB later expanded in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean.
 After losing its branches in Egypt to nationalization, IB retreated from the Mediterranean, selling all its operations there.
 Michael Behrens and John Trusted then acquired Ionian Bank, converting it into a merchant bank in London.
 This London operation was never very successful and in 1977 it voluntarily gave up its banking licence.
 The Greek operation, renamed "Ionian Popular Bank", was absorbed into Alpha Bank in 2000.
Michael Behrens, grown up in Neuss, lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.
 From 1999 to 2003 Behrens studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Maastricht, Netherlands where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2003 .
A bachelor button is a button that can be attached without sewing.
 It uses a stud pressed through fabric and into a top button.
 They were sold in notion stores in the late 1800s and early 1900s as an emergency repair button.
 They could be attached and removed.
 The poem “A Bachelor's Button” is a lament by a man whose lover never sewed his button on his coat and had to use a bachelor's button to repair it.
Howard Chesner Behrens (August 20, 1933 – April 14, 2014) was American popular artist whose original works of art are sold in fine art galleries, at auction on cruise ships, and at Costco.
 Behrens' limited and open editions are sold internationally.
 Behrens was also one of the top-selling artists on Princess Cruises.
Boulevard is a French film directed by Julien Duvivier, released in 1960, and set in the Quartier Pigalle.
 It focuses on Georges 'Jojo' Castagnier (Jean-Pierre Léaud), an adolescent who lives in a poor room under the roof of a block of apartments in the Pigalle section of Paris.
 He ran away from home when he realized that his step-mother hated him from day-one.
 Among Jojo's many neighbors is the gorgeous Jenny Dorr (Magali Noël), a nightclub dancer, whose lover he dreams of being.
 But, to Jojo's disappointment, Jenny becomes the lover of Dicky (Pierre Mondy), a former boxer, who spends his time loafing about the Pigalle cafés.
Edward Michael Behrens (15 September 1911 - January 1989) was a British financier, banker, stockbroker, and restaurant and gallery owner, who became co-owner of the Ionian Bank.
 Through his ownership of the Hanover Gallery, he was an early patron of the artist Francis Bacon.
Alice Perrers (1348–1400) was a fourteenth-century English royal mistress whose lover and patron was King Edward III of England.
 She met him originally in her capacity as a lady-in-waiting to Edward's consort, Philippa of Hainault.
 She went on to become the wealthiest woman in the land.
 However, she was despised by many and was accused of taking advantage of the far older king with her youth, beauty, and opportunistic character.
"Your Heart Belongs to Me" is a 1962 song written and composed by The Miracles' William "Smokey" Robinson and released as a single by Motown singing group The Supremes during their early years with the label.
 The song is about a woman whose lover is in the armed forces and has "Gone to a far-away land"; its narration has her tell him to always remember their love for each other if he ever gets lonely.
The Ballad of Sally Rose is an album by Emmylou Harris released in February 1985.
 It marked a significant departure for Harris (whose previous albums had consisted mostly of others' material), as all the songs were written by her and her then-husband Paul Kennerley.
 Additionally, it is a concept album, loosely based on Harris's relationship with Gram Parsons.
 The album tells the story of a character named Sally Rose, a singer whose lover and mentor, a hard-living, hard-drinking musician, is killed while on the road.
 Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Gail Davies sing harmony on several of the songs.
 Many of the songs flow into one another to create a continuous momentum.

Question: Edward Michael Behrens was an early patron of an artist whose lover comitted suicide in what year?
Answer: 1971