The Shop Window Of A Tobacco Store
Signed Print

The Shop Window Of A Tobacco Store sees Hockney incorporating architectural elements, text and figures in a way that recalls many of the prints from his previous series of etchings, A Rake’s Progress. Here we find a group of men in front of the tobacco shop of the title, their figures captured mid conversation. Two of them are dressed casually and appear to be discussing something; their heads are turned towards each other in intimacy or complicitness, as if planning an assignation. A third man, wearing a kind of fez style of hat, walks towards them but it is unclear whether he will join them or if he is just a passerby. His figure is framed by a dark archway which echoes the ogee windows that appear like cut outs above the shop sign declaring ‘His master’s voice’ in English and arabic. With its contrast of light and dark, shaded areas and fine lines, the work demonstrates Hockney’s mastery of etching and evolution of style since A Rake’s Progress. Made in 1967 to accompany a new translation of fourteen poems by Greek poet C.P.Cavafy, the works in this series are overt in their depiction of queer desire, suggesting this scene is more than just a casual encounter on the street.