Celia Musing
Signed Print

One of the more staged portraits in the 1979 Gemini series, this depiction of Hockney’s close friend and muse Celia Birtwell shows the young textile designer wearing a suit and heels. The sense of artifice is emphasised with the inclusion of a still life, recalling so called ‘swagger portraits’ and yet subverting the genre by the lack of ornament in both style and subject. Hockney painted and sketched Celia many times throughout his career and she is the subject – along with her husband Ossie Clark and her cat Percy – of one of Hockney’s most famous paintings. She appears in the 1979 Gemini portfolio seven times in various poses and outfits, as if Hockney were producing a number of quick, sketchy studies before producing a finished portrait. Speaking of his love for the designer as both friend and subject Hockney has said, “Celia has a beautiful face, 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.”