David Hockney (1937–2026): Innovation and Legacy

Chiswick Auctions was saddened by the passing of David Hockney on 11 June 2026.

When news broke the following day that David Hockney had died peacefully at the age of 88, much of the immediate response focused, understandably, on the grand scale of his achievement: the museum exhibitions, the record-breaking paintings, the swimming pools and the monumental canvases.

Yet, by a striking coincidence, a more intimate reflection of Hockney’s artistic philosophy was unfolding at Chiswick Auctions on the very day of his passing. In London, our Summer Prints & Multiples sale was underway, led by a broad group of Hockney’s commercial prints, lithographs and experimental home-made fax works. Together, they stood as a reminder of one of the central principles of his career: that art could be innovative, personal and widely available at once.

Still Life with Curtains (1986)

Leading the sale was Still Life with Curtains (1986), which sold for £26,460 (pictured above). In this work, Hockney produced separate drawings for each colour component before photocopying and layering them together into a final composition. The process parallels traditional multi-layer printmaking techniques such as screenprinting, woodcut and linocut. By using a photocopier rather than a press, however, Hockney modernised and simplified the process, gaining a remarkable degree of artistic independence. He was able to create limited-edition home-made prints without relying on a professional printer, studio or conventional press.

While Hockney championed the democratic possibilities of print, he was also a master of singular, intimate craftsmanship. To understand that side of his genius, one need only look back to another notable result at Chiswick Auctions: the sale of his 1970 drawing View from Miramar Hotel, Santa Monica, which achieved £320,000.

View from Miramar Hotel

A recurring motif in Hockney’s work is the view through a window, doorway or across a balcony. In View from Miramar Hotel, he places the viewer inside the hotel room, looking out past the framing of open glass doors towards the sunlit world beyond. When Hockney first moved from the grey landscape of post-war Britain to Los Angeles, he felt he had entered a world of colour, light and freedom. View from Miramar Hotel is, in many ways, a love letter to that transformation.

The drawing is also a thematic bridge. It contains the essential visual language of his great California paintings, such as A Bigger Splash (1967) and Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972), but delivers it with the immediacy and intimacy of drawing. It shows that Hockney did not need a monumental canvas to capture the character of a place. He needed only a box of crayons, a balcony view and his unparalleled way of seeing.

Later this month, we are also proud to offer Two Red Peppers, a captivating work from that same milestone year. Hockney’s crayon and coloured pencil drawings of vegetables and domestic objects from the 1970s are often overshadowed by the large-scale, sun-drenched swimming pool paintings of the same period. Yet these quieter works are highly regarded by art historians and represent an important moment of transition and concentration in his practice.

Two Red Peppers,

In Two Red Peppers, Hockney challenged the lingering assumption that crayons and coloured pencils were somehow lesser, amateur materials. Across this body of work, he effortlessly dismantled that prejudice. His delicate, precise strokes capture the glossy, light-catching skin of the peppers with extraordinary sensitivity. Other drawings from the period similarly demonstrate his command of surface and texture, whether in the brittle layers of peeling onions or the smooth, satin-like skin of an aubergine. By investing these modest subjects with such careful attention, Hockney showed that mastery lies not in scale but in vision.

Two Red Peppers leads our 30 June 2026 auction, taking place at 2pm, with a pre-sale estimate of £60,000–£80,000.

Explore our upcoming Modern British & Irish Art sale and view Two Red Peppers in the catalogue here.

If you are considering selling a work by David Hockney, our specialists offer confidential, no-obligation valuations and would be pleased to advise.

Online Valuations ⇒