“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.”
—David Hockney

Celia with Green Hat of 1984 is one of the numerous artworks that David Hockney has created depicting his close friend and muse, designer Celia Birtwell. Hockney has been inspired by Birtwell for over half a century, capturing her myriad likenesses and personality over time. Drawn to her fleeting expressions and unique features, Hockney stated, “She has many faces and I think if you looked through all the drawings I’ve done of her, you’d see that they don’t look alike.” In this lithograph, Birtwell’s bubbly personality is reflected in the colourful palette and bold composition. Hockney chose to depict Celia in close proximity to the picture plane with her face taking up the majority of the frame, creating an intimate viewing space between subject and audience. Her rosy complexion offsets the emerald green of her eyes, matching the hat that is almost overwhelmed by wild curly hair. With her chin resting on her hands, the cheerful composition paired with her charming, bashful expression welcomes the viewer to enter Hockney and Celia’ close friendship.

 

This portrait was produced during the mid-1980s, a time when Hockney began to move away from naturalism instead favouring early modern artists and their use of bright colours and looser modelling. Having witnessed the 1980 Picasso exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Hockney was immediately impressed by his variation of style, subject matter and prolific production of work, stating, “It’s like the National Gallery all painted by one man... it’s Rembrandt, Piero, Van Gogh and Degas all in one.” After exploring the Cubist element in his photocollages the previous year – chopping square, angular frames and rearranging them to create a familiar yet vastly distorted composite image as seen in Celia Making Tea of 1982 – Hockney tackled the concept in print with the same impassioned energy. With a keen eye for observation, Hockney was fascinated by the Cubist approach to image making that prioritised an essence of reality over a visually cohesive “truthful” image. Having studied Celia’s emotive expressions through various early portraits, Hockney’s intimate way of seeing filters different angles and viewpoints, personalities, moods and vantage points to create a genuine portrait reflecting the entirety of Celia’s various likeness and personalities.

“The Cubists didn’t shut their eyes. People complain about Picasso – how he distorted the human face. I don’t think there are any distortions at all.”
—David HockneyLike Hockney, Birtwell was born in the North of England, and she studied textile design at the Royal Technical College in Salford. In 1959, she met Raymond "Ossie" Clark, an up-and-coming fashion designer. The pair were married in London in 1969, with David Hockney in attendance as Clark’s best man. Although Clark initially crossed paths with Hockney in the early 1960s and his likeness first appeared in a Hockney painting titled Domestic Scene, Notting Hill in 1963, it was not until 1969 that Hockney made his first portraits of Celia. In an ink drawing simply titled Celia, Paris, 1969, the 28-year-old Birtwell sits slightly stiffly (out of nervousness, she recalled in retrospect) on a chair in a barely furnished Parisian apartment. Upon meeting, Celia and Hockney immediately formed a special bond, and the British fashion designer has since sat for the artist on more than eighty occasions over the past five decades, most famously in his renowned painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy (1971). Today, her portrait has become a signature motif within Hockney’s oeuvre, with her likeness as familiar as the swimming pools of Los Angeles or the landscapes of Yorkshire.