Picture Of Portrait In Silver Frame
Signed Print

Picture Of Portrait In Silver Frame brings together two major themes in Hockney’s oeuvre. The 1965 lithograph is part of one of the first series the artist embarked upon after moving to LA the year before. Here we see him experimenting with a new medium, which allowed him to bring in more elements of his painting than etching had previously afforded him, and to play with surface and depth to produce this trompe l’oeil technique of a fictional frame around a portrait. Embellished with scrolling woodwork and a dentil edge the frame appears to bridge the gap between image and viewer adding distance to the portrait, despite the two elements being on the same plane. The portrait itself is classic of Hockney’s early style and recalls series such as A Rake’s Progress. The sitter is shown with blotches of ink denoting the shadows of his face, and he is wearing a striped suit that takes us back to much of the work Hockney made while still in England, suggesting he made this piece before he had fully settled into his more relaxed LA style which culminated in much looser portraits of his friends and lovers.