“Of course you can still paint landscape – it’s not been worn out.”
—David Hockney Depicting a tranquil winter’s night, David Hockney’s Snow from the 1973 Weather Series presents a timeless winter wonderland that depicts nature undisturbed by human presence. Dappled dots of soft snow illuminate the night sky, forming a pristine blanket of white across the hills and accumulating in cloud-like puffs on tree branches. Horizontal bands of tonal gradation amidst swathes of un-inked page create rolling, marshmallow-topped peaks that recede into the background to create illusions of depth in the otherwise two-dimensional scene. Hockney’s delicate portrayal conveys the quiet majesty of a peaceful midwinter where the only movement is the silent accumulation of powdery bliss.

Before completing his Weather Series, Hockney travelled to Japan to distract from his separation from long-term partner Peter Schlesinger. Disappointed at first by the industrial scenery, Hockney became quickly enamoured of Japanese traditional art that depicted rolling hills, vast mountainous topography and bucolic country idylls. The heavily stylised renditions – characterised by cropped compositions, heavy outlined delineations, bold block colours and woodcut textures – began to take precedence in Hockney’s own landscape depictions, as demonstrated in Mount Fuji and Flowers painted upon his returned to England in 1972. Embarking on various journeys to Japan between 1971 and 1973 provided a fresh lens for Hockney to view his work, the subtle coalescing between east and west revivifying his compositions that had previously restrained by a tinge of melancholic loneliness and absence.

Katsushika Hokusai, Seaside Village in Winter, from Hokusai’s Album of Realistic Pictures (Hokusai sashin fafu), 1814, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Francis Lathrop Collection, Purchase, Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1911, JP748

Hockney’s weather subjects took direct inspiration from the popular Japanese ukiyo-e woodcut prints by artists such as Katsushika Hokusai. Characterised by intricate detail and evocative portrayals of nature and everyday life, Hokusai’s woodblock print series depict Mount Fuji and other Japanese landscape through the seasons. Whether presenting a landscape laden with snow or havocked by billowing gusts of wind, they are rendered with a stylised naturalism and deceptive simplicity. We see this gracefully mirrored in Hockney’s series; both detailed and restrained, sparse and balanced. The work of Hockney and Hokusai alike interweaves the grandeur of nature with highly refined form and colour to create entrancing compositions that follow close observation of the natural landscape.

Claude Monet, Haystacks (Effect of Snow and Sun), 1891, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929, 29.100.109

Hockney’s Weather Series, which also includes explorations of rain, mist, sun, wind and lightning, draws strong parallels to the Impressionist movement – particularly its focus on light, nature, and the transience of a fleeting moment. Pioneering Impressionist Claude Monet sought to capture the vanishing effects of light and atmosphere, painting en plein air to observe how natural light transformed their surroundings. Similarly, Hockney’s works in the Weather Series emphasise the transient and mutable qualities of weather, portraying the delicate dance of light and shadow that emphasises the ephemeral beauty of nature. In Snow, the delicate interplay of light and movement, combined with the serene, untouched landscape, evokes a momentary glimpse of nature’s quiet power. Hockney’s fascination with these themes in the early 1970s prefigured later bodies of work, such as his monumental, multi-media Arrival of Spring projects, completed in Yorkshire in 2011 and in Normandy in 2020, which captured the light and colours of the respective environments as they transitioned from winter to late spring.
- Literature
  Gemini G.E.L. 445
  Scottish Arts Council 140
  Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo 131
- 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

41

David Hockney

Snow, from Weather Series (G. 445, S.A.C. 140, M.C.A.T. 131)

1973
Lithograph and screenprint in colours, on Arjomari paper, with full margins.
I. 86.8 x 72.5 cm (34 1/8 x 28 1/2 in.)
S. 101.8 x 85.2 cm (40 1/8 x 33 1/2 in.)
Signed, dated and numbered 21/98 in green pencil, titled in blue pencil (there were also 12 artist's proofs), published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles (with their blindstamps), framed.

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Sold for £50,800

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