In 1954, Francis Bacon painted seven versions of the Man in Blue, seven studies on isolation and loneliness. The work depicts an anonymous figure in a dark, cage-like space defined by merely a few lines. The painter increases the mysterious presence of the man by blurring his physiognomy. 

This extraordinary painting would have been out of reach for the Kunstsammlung were it not for the fact that—at the suggestion of the Friends —the Düsseldorf-based bank Trinkaus & Burkhardt, which celebrated a major anniversary in 1986, documented its traditional connection to the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen with an extremely generous donation on a scale without precedence in the history of the museum. The painting was ceremoniously presented to the Kunstsammlung on the occasion of the opening of the new building on Grabbeplatz in 1986. Since then, the lecture hall has been known as the Trinkaus Auditorium.