“They sleep with me; I’m always with them. They don’t go anywhere without me and only occasionally do I leave them. They’re like little people to me”
—David Hockney
Hockney’s love for sausage dogs was sparked by Heinz, the cherished dachshund of his close friend Ian Falconer. Upon seeing how besotted Hockney was with Heinz, Falconer took the artist to pick out Stanley at the breeders, with Little Boodgie joining the Hockney household a few years later. Stanley and Little Boodgie were first immortalised in 1995 in a series of paintings titled Dog Days. Realised a few years later in 1998, the Dog Wall portfolio was produced soon after Hockney’s close friend and master printer Maurice Payne moved into the artist’s Los Angeles home for a year. In Hockney’s Montcalm Avenue residence, Payne set up a fully-functioning etching studio. He took to leaving prepared etching plates all around Hockney’s house, which the artist would then spontaneously use as he might a sketchbook.
David Hockney with his Dachshund, 1992. Image: Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Hockney’s repeated meditations on his two dachshunds epitomise his devotion to the dogs, with Dog Wall serving as the most refined, multi-faceted representation of their individual personalities. The sense of freedom found in Hockney’s quick sketches is exhibited in every individual charming etching that comprises Dog Wall, with each print serving as a short study of the dachshunds. Captured at speed – before the dogs darted off again – Hockney uses variations in line to depict the pair as rapidly yet realistically as possible.
“These two dear little creatures are my friends. They are intelligent, loving, comical and often bored. They watch me work; I notice the warm shapes they make together, their sadness and their delights. And, being Hollywood dogs, they somehow seem to know that a picture is being made”
—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.
1998 Etching, on Somerset paper, with full margins. I. 45.9 x 65 cm (18 1/8 x 25 5/8 in.) S. 56.8 x 76 cm (22 3/8 x 29 7/8 in.) Signed, dated and annotated 'BaT' in pencil (the bon à tirer or 'good to print' proof before the edition of 35 and 10 artist's proofs), published by Pace Editions, Inc., New York, framed.