Dog Etching No. 1
Dog Etching No. 1
Signed Print
David Hockney
£21,000-£30,000
$40,000-$60,000 Value Indicator
$35,000-$50,000 Value Indicator
¥180,000-¥260,000 Value Indicator
€24,000-€35,000 Value Indicator
$210,000-$290,000 Value Indicator
¥3,450,000-¥4,940,000 Value Indicator
$26,000-$35,000 Value Indicator
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22 x 27cm, Edition of 35, Etching
Meaning & Analysis
A tender portrait of Hockney’s dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie, this 1998 etching shows the pair sleeping on a round cushion that also acts as a framing device for the composition. Rendered in soft cross hatched marks that convey their wiry fur and classic sausage dog form, the beloved pets radiate a feeling of peace and intimacy. Using only black ink, the work has the immediacy of a sketch, suggesting Hockney worked directly from life, drawing onto the etching plate to catch a rare moment when his models were still. The work is part of a series of prints, paintings and drawings which was collected in the book David Hockney’s Dog Days which was published in 1998.
Hockney first started drawing dogs in 1987 and in 1995 he began painting them, as a reaction to the grief he felt over the death of Henry Geldzahler and many other close friends he lost to the AIDS crisis of the preceding years. Speaking of this turn in his work Hockney said, “I wanted desperately to paint something loving. … I felt such a loss of love I wanted to deal with it in some way. I realized I was painting my best friends, Stanley and Boodgie. They sleep with me; I’m always with them here. They don’t go anywhere without me and only occasionally do I leave them. They’re like little people to me. The subject wasn’t dogs but my love of the little creatures.”