Celia In The Director's Chair
Signed Print

One of the more coy depictions of Celia Birtwell in Hockney’s oeuvre, Celia In The Director’s Chair shows the designer and model sat forwards in the classic style of chair, her eyes downturned and her hands in her pockets as if she might be just about to get up. She wears a tight black skirt that reveals her bare legs and a plain blouse which is conspicuously lacking in the bold prints we come to expect from the artist’s portraits of Birtwell. On her head she wears the black beret we recognise from works such as Celia In An Armchairhowever this work is closer to Celia Musing with its loose brushstrokes which depict her iconic features with a graceful economy. Her feet are tucked together in unassuming ballet pumps, adding to the suggestion of her body language that she is experiencing a moment of shyness, unusual for such a long term sitter of Hockney’s portraits and a close friend. Usually Hockney’s portraits of Birtwell are suffused in intimacy, even when she is looking away, or a directness and confidence when she meets his gaze.