Celia With Green Plant
Signed Print

A far cry from Hockney's etchings of Celia Birtwell, this lithograph from 1980 celebrates her youthful beauty in exuberant brushstrokes of black ink contrasted with the bright green of the plant and the vibrant yellow of her skirt. Her curly hair appears closely cropped, her face elegantly made up and understated – her bright red lips adding a punctum to the image. She wears a patterned top of the kind we expect from previous portraits of the famous British designer, and she appears relaxed in a chair, perhaps on holiday, or merely at ease in the home of her close friend. Hockney has painted, drawn and printed Birtwell's likeness many times over the course of his long career and he continues to turn to her for inspiration even today. As she has aged, she has continued to be a model for his paintings, which has brought new hesitations: “It’s made me very wary!” She explained in an interview, “When I was young, the drawings were lovely. But as he says, we’re all getting older, so you’re going to see something that’s possibly quite, ‘Oh wow…’”