Celia, 8365 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood
Signed Print

This 1973 lithograph shows a much more imposing version of Celia Birtwell than we are used to seeing in Hockney’s oeuvre. The designer and muse faces us head on, her head slightly lowered, her eyes looking up at us from underneath her lashes and thick fringe. She is almost unrecognisable as the Celia from 1969. As always in Hockney's portraits of Birtwell her dress steals the show; the artist has paid particular attention to the textile’s pattern and the cut of the garment. Dainty black pumps with an ankle strap draw the eye up to the full skirt, the empire line waist, the deep v neck – filled with a dark roll neck jumper – and the floaty sleeves that are a classic of ’70s style. She sits in a modernist wicker and metal chair that adds an extra element of glamour to the work, which, titled Celia, 8365 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, already feels like a huge jump from the more casual depictions of Birtwell. Here we find Hockney using lithography to create areas of grey shading, foregoing the linear style of his etchings to bring a softness to his model’s features and clothes.