Celia Smoking
Signed Print

This detailed lithograph shows just the head and shoulders of Celia Birtwell, from an elevated perspective, the cigarette of the title left out of the composition. Her eyes are downcast and seemingly unaware of the artist’s presence, her face softly shadowed in grey while her mop of curls is piled in a beautifully disheveled arrangement on top of her head, cascading down like water around her features. She sits slightly hunched forward, as if in awkward proximity to the artist and yet there is a feeling of intimacy, or at least tension between the two. Hockney has lightly sketched in the pattern of her dress but, unlike in other portraits of Birtwell, he bestows more attention on her head, and while her sense of style is somewhat lost, her classic beauty is undeniable. It is in this beauty that we find the great love Hockney feels for his close friend, of whom he has said, “Celia has … a very rare face with lots of things in it which appeal to me. It shows aspects of her, like her intuitive knowledge and her kindness, which I think is the greatest virtue. To me she’s such a special person.”