David Hockney - Editions, Photographs and Design Hong Kong Thursday, December 12, 2024 | Phillips
  • “Hockney? He has immortalised me”
    — Celia Birtwell
    Celia Reading of 1979 is one of the numerous artworks that David Hockney has created depicting his close friend and muse, designer Celia Birtwell. Hockney has been inspired by Birtwell for over half a century, capturing her myriad likenesses and personality over time. Drawn to her fleeting expressions and unique features, Hockney stated, “She has many faces and I think if you looked through all the drawings I’ve done of her, you’d see that they don’t look alike.” 


    Like Hockney, Birtwell was born in the North of England, and she studied textile design at the Royal Technical College in Salford. In 1959, she met Raymond "Ossie" Clark, an up-and-coming fashion designer. The pair were married in London in 1969, with David Hockney in attendance as Clark’s best man. Although Clark initially crossed paths with Hockney in the early 1960s and his likeness first appeared in a Hockney painting titled Domestic Scene, Notting Hill in 1963, it was not until 1969 that Hockney made his first portraits of Celia. In an ink drawing simply titled Celia, Paris, 1969, the 28-year-old Birtwell sits slightly stiffly (out of nervousness, she recalled in retrospect) on a chair in a barely furnished Parisian apartment. Upon meeting, Celia and Hockney immediately formed a special bond, and the British fashion designer has since sat for the artist on more than eighty occasions over the past five decades, most famously in his renowned painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy (1971). Today, her portrait has become a signature motif within Hockney’s oeuvre, with her likeness as familiar as the swimming pools of Los Angeles or the landscapes of Yorkshire.

     

     

    • Literature

      Gemini G.E.L. 1647
      Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo 245

    • Artist Biography

      David Hockney

      David Hockney (b. 1937) is one of the most well-known and celebrated artists of the
      20th and 21st centuries. He works across many mediums, including painting, collage,
      and more recently digitally, by creating print series on iPads. His works show semi-
      abstract representations of domestic life, human relationships, floral, fauna, and the
      changing of seasons.

      Hockney has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Royal
      Academy of Arts in London, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, among many
      other institutions. On the secondary market, his work has sold for more than $90
      million.

       
      View More Works

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE ASIAN COLLECTION

33

Celia Reading (G. 1647, M.C.A.T. 245)

1980
Lithograph in sepia, on Arches Cover paper, with full margins.
S. 73.7 x 91.4 cm (29 x 35 7/8 in.)
Signed, dated and annotated 'R.T.P.' in pencil (the ready-to-print impression, the edition was 30 and 8 artist’s proofs), published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles (with their blindstamps), 1995, unframed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$50,000 - 70,000 
€6,100-8,600
$6,400-9,000

Sold for HK$107,950

Contact Specialist

Nick Wilson
Senior Director, Head of Editions, Photographs and Design, Asia
nickwilson@phillips.com
+852 2318 2022
 

Editions, Photographs and Design

Hong Kong Auction 12 December 2024