'Study for 'Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy'', David Hockney

Artwork details

Artist

David Hockney (born 1937)

Title

Study for 'Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy'

Date 1970

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 432 x 352 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Presented by the artist 1972

Reference

T01516

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Summary

This is one of numerous studies Hockney made for his double portrait Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, 1970-1 (Tate Gallery T01269). The husband and wife fashion designers Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell were at the top of the fashion industry in London in the 'Swinging Sixties', when London's reputation as the fashion capital of the world was at its height. Clark designed clothes using Birtwell's textile designs, and sold them from the shop Quorum in Chelsea's King's Road.

The picture posed great technical problems for Hockney. He worked out the composition over an extended period of time, from photographs and drawings. This drawing is a three-quarter profile portrait study of Clark. Hockney wrote: 'The figures are nearly life-size; it's difficult painting figures like that, and it was quite a struggle. They posed for a long time, both Ossie and Celia. Ossie was painted many, many times; I took it out and put it in, out and in. I probably painted the head alone twelve times' (Stangos, p.203)… (read more)