Name: According To Prescriptions Of Ancient Magicians
Brand: David Hockney
Rating: 5 (233 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of David Hockney’s According To Prescriptions Of Ancient Magicians (signed) is estimated to be worth between £2,350 and £3,500. Over the past 12 months, the artwork has sold once, with an average selling price of £2,400. In the last five years, the hammer price has ranged from £2,000 in September 2023 to £3,200 in June 2023. This etching, created in 1966, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 4%. This work is rare to the market, having been sold 9 times since its initial sale in November 2003. The edition size of this artwork is not currently available.

Auction Date

Auction House

Location

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

April 2025

Rosebery's Fine Art Auctioneers

United Kingdom

November 2023

Stockholms Auction House

Sweden

September 2023

Bonhams Knightsbridge

United Kingdom

June 2023

Bonhams New Bond Street

United Kingdom

September 2019

Quittenbaum

Germany

May 2019

Wright

United States

December 2004

Lempertz, Cologne

Germany

Meaning & Analysis

Created as part of Illustrations For Fourteen Poems By C. P. Cavafy, According To Prescriptions Of Ancient Magicians (1967) is a signed etching by David Hockney that represents his lifelong inspiration with gay culture and world literature. Through the subtle and intimate images of young male couples recurring in the series, Hockney aims not only to evoke the atmosphere of Cavafy’s poems but also represents the very quality of the Alexandria-born Greek poet’s writing.

In According To The Formulas Of Ancient Greco-Syrian Magicians (1931), one of Cavafy’s last poems that inspired the etching, a man longs to be reunited with the lover of his youth, wishing for a potion to move him back in time and “bring back the age of twenty-three again; bring my friend at twenty-two years old back [to me] again – his beauty, his love.’’ The drawing of two men in bed presented in the print was copied onto the etching plate from Boys In Bed, Beirut, an ink drawing of Hockney’s friends made in London.

The etching captures the evolution of Hockney’s approach to the themes of eroticism and same-sex desire. Having debuted as an artist before homosexual acts between men were legalized in England and Wales in 1967, Hockney started with a subtle and rather indirect way of representing gay love. We Two Boys Together Clinging (1961), an early painting inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem of the same title, engages with intimacy and eroticism through subtle symbols and highly abstracted representation. Preceding the artist’s bold nude portraits of his lovers including Gregory Evans, the Cavafy illustrations represent the gradual evolution of Hockney’s idiom.

British-born artist David Hockney is a kaleidoscopic force in the art world. Born in 1937, Hockney's vibrant palette and innovative techniques have left an indelible mark on contemporary art. A pioneer of the British Pop Art movement in the 1960s, he seamlessly transitioned through various styles, from photo collages to vivid landscapes. Renowned for his exploration of light and space, Hockney's versatility extends to painting, printmaking, photography, and stage design. A captivating storyteller, his works often capture the essence of modern life with a playful yet profound touch. With a career spanning decades, Hockney remains an enduring visionary in the ever-evolving art world.