Name: Man Reading Stendahl
Brand: David Hockney
Rating: 5 (236 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of David Hockney's Man Reading Stendahl (signed) is estimated to be worth between £7,500 and £11,500. This digital print, created in 1986, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 4%. This work has an auction history of five sales since its entry to the market in July 2018. In the last five years, the hammer price has ranged from £5,417 in February 2021 to £12,000 in September 2022. The average return to the seller over the past five years has been £7,237. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 60.

Meaning & Analysis

Reduced to a handful of lines and fragmented, the figure in Hockney’s Man Reading Stendhal recalls Picasso's Cubist portraits. His eyes lowered to read an unmarked book, he sits in an armchair on a fuzzy blue rug. Behind him, as if plastered to the wall, are pages of text. His face is mottled, as are other coloured parts of the work, recalling the texture of old fashioned composition notebooks. One of the more playful works in the Home Made Prints series, Man Reading Stendahl is a joyful experiment with style and technique that marks a significant departure from the etchings and lithographs of his earlier work. With the purchase of an office photocopier in 1986 Hockney was able to find a new freedom in printmaking; where before he was reliant on assistants and workshops, with the machine he could add layers, play with texture and scale, and produce digital print editions all by himself. Speaking of his newfound technique the artist said, “I can work with great speed and responsiveness. In fact this is the closest I’ve ever come in printing to what it’s like to paint: I can put something down, evaluate it, alter it, revise it, reexamine it, all in a matter of seconds”.