Price data unavailable
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Medium: Etching
Edition size: 35
Year: 1998
Size: H 112cm x W 78cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
Watch artwork, manage valuations, track your portfolio and return against your collection
Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
March 2024 | Christie's New York | United States |
Brenda is an etching on Somerset paper created by David Hockney in 1998. This portrait depicts a woman named Brenda, focusing solely on her facial features and expression. Hockney, known for his diverse artistic output, produced this piece as part of a series of etchings in the late 1990s.
In Brenda, Hockney employs etching, a printmaking technique where lines are incised into a metal plate using acid, creating a print with fine detail and tonal variations. The artwork demonstrates Hockney's skill in translating observational drawings into the more deliberate medium of printmaking.
The composition focuses entirely on Brenda's face, eliminating background elements to draw attention to her expression. The viewer's eyes are drawing towards Brenda's hands at the bottom of the composition, which reach to hold her swollen, pregnant stomach. The etching's intimate scale and focused composition invite close inspection, encouraging viewers to engage deeply with the subject's depicted personality.
Brenda is part of a larger body of work from the late 1990s where Hockney explored portraiture through various printmaking techniques. This period marked a return to traditional mediums for Hockney, following his experiments with photography and digital art in the 1980s and early 1990s.