During one memorable scene in the recent documentary Celebrating David Hockney, the Bradford-born artist was sitting in his Normandy studio, surrounded by portraits, and was asked by Melvyn Bragg, the presenter he has known for almost 50 years, what he looks for in a sitter. “Character,” Hockney said, simply.
Ever dynamic, he has experimented with art forms from opera sets to landscapes drawn on an iPad, but his portraits give the most intimate insight into the artist. This week, an exhibition looking at six decades of Hockney’s work opens at the National Portrait Gallery and includes more than 30 brand new works — including, to much excitement, a portrait of Harry Styles.
David Hockney: Drawing from Life originally opened in 2020 but had to close because of Covid. The new works in the 2023 version (except Styles) are intimate studies of those whom Hockney knows best. His longtime muse Celia Birtwell is featured, along with her granddaughters and Hockney’s studio assistants and family members. There are even some sitters from his life in Normandy, including his gardener, chiropodist and the local mayor. All were painted in his studio there, which, according to Birtwell’s granddaughter Tilly Clark, “is like David’s Disneyland”.
Hockney, 86, lives near the village of Beuvron-en-Auge. Admirers of his work will recognise it from the vibrant landscapes he has painted over the past four years, including a 314 ft Bayeux Tapestry-like painting of his garden.
“It feels like a completely isolated world,” Clark says. “I almost felt like I had been there before.”
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For those in the orbit of one of Britain’s most prolific artists, there are subtle signs that you are about to become the subject of his next portrait. “I notice that he pays particular attention to people, that he seems to be looking at somebody a lot,” his great-nephew and assistant, Richard Hockney, says. “You get a sense that he’s going to be drawing them soon and he is working them out.”
Hockney’s portraits start with a character study. “The first day he had me sit opposite him at every meal around the table,” Tilly’s sister Lola says, “so he could study my every move and facial expressions, staring at me so intensely.”
Hockney is a morning person and his work ethic is well documented. He takes things at a more leisurely pace now that he is older, although he still works almost every day for hours at a time. “David would probably say that he lives in bohemia — so if he wakes up and he wants to get straight to it, then he’ll get straight to it,” Richard says. “He might read his papers for a couple of hours and then start — but no later than midday.”
Hockney likes to work in silence, which can be unnerving for some. The experience was “intense but incredible”, says Simone Brandao, the wife of Hockney’s technical assistant Jonathan Wilkinson. She sat with their six-year-old daughter, Luna.
Each portrait took about three days to complete, with Hockney painting for six or so hours a day. “All the time I was talking to Luna very quietly, saying, ‘Don’t move,’” Brandao says.
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Hockney likes to break for a few minutes every hour “for a cigarette”, though he will also smoke in the studio. “We usually have lunch next door in the house,” Richard says. “On a very rare occasion we might have a bit of sushi in the studio, but he likes to keep to breaks because if not, he’ll end up picking the brush straight back up.”
Birtwell, who has sat for Hockney more than 80 times since the 1960s, is his most practised sitter and is intimately familiar with his way of working. “David’s face has got so many extraordinary expressions — it’s a remarkable face,” she says. “You know when he’s happy or wants to be private. It all shows in his face when he’s painting you.”
It also shows on the canvas. Hockney has derided photography in the past and has been quoted as saying of his portraits: “A photograph is just an instant ... don’t you think these are a lot more interesting than photos?”
His sitters agree. “David can capture parts of you that a camera can’t,” Lola says. “The essence of you that you didn’t even know existed. You really have to take a step back and look at it. Now when I look in the mirror, I can see it.”
David Hockney: Drawing from Life, National Portrait Gallery, London WC2, Thu until Jan 21
