David Hockney
Peter
1969
Etching on J. B. Green mould-made paper. Full margins. Signed, dated and numbered 45/75 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Maurice Payne, London. Published by Petersburg Press, London.
27 ¼ x 21 ¼ in; 68.7 x 54.3 cm
David Hockney (b. 1937, United Kingdom) began his practice as an important contributor to Pop art in the 50s and 60s. This portrait of his then-partner, artist Peter Schlesinger, is emblematic of his 1960s style informed by the visual language of advertising and his interest in intimately portraying his artistic community. Schlesinger met Hockney as Hockney’s student at UCLA in 1967 and moved with Hockney to London, becoming Hockney’s frequent portrait subject in prints, drawings and paintings of the time. This nude portrait is marked by a simple, almost vernacular, stylization and an unabashed narrative of homosexual love.
The illustrative graphic style of Peter links to Hockney’s other illustration projects of the time – most famously his illustrations of C.P. Cavafy’s poems in 1966 and his series of 39 etchings, Illustrations for Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm in 1969. Hockney’s autobiographical references, evident in works such as Peter, “make his art a personal diary of where he’s been and who he’s seen.” As Hockney explains, “They’re fascinating, the little stories, told in a very simple, direct, straightforward language and style; it was this simplicity that attracted me. They cover quite a strange range of experience, from the magical to the moral.”
Provenance
New York, Swann Auction Galleries, Lot 187, Sale 2677, August 22, 2024
See also
David Hockney in the collection of Tate
David Hockney in the collection of the MoMA, New York
David Hockney in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
David Hockney at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 27, 2017 – February 25, 2018