Brooke Hopper
Signed Print

Hockney has been drawing and painting his friends throughout his whole career. This 1976 portrait of Brooke Hopper is part of one of his most iconic portfolios, Friends (Gemini G.E.L 1976 Portfolio), a collection of lithographs made in collaboration with the famous Gemini print workshop in LA. While Hockney had mostly worked with etching in his early career, the turn to lithography allowed him to create softer tones as well as more sketch-like lines. Here we find the sitter, his friend Brooke Hopper, seated in a modernist chair, a column and vase of flowers to her left and a table or chest of drawers jutting into the composition from the bottom. Her body is at rest, her right hand lightly placed on her skirt which has a vibrant striped pattern. The setting is typical for this series which focuses as much on chairs and still life arrangements as the sitters themselves. The walls are often left blank in order to allow the detail of the face and clothes to be thrown into relief. While produced in an edition of 92 the work has the immediacy and intimacy of one of Hockney’s drawings; the classic beauty of the sitter, the style of the clothes and the carefully considered interior make this a true masterpiece of Hockney’s oeuvre.