The Beginning
The Beginning
Signed Print
David Hockney
£2,400-£3,600
$4,800-$7,000 Value Indicator
$4,350-$6,500 Value Indicator
¥22,000-¥35,000 Value Indicator
€2,900-€4,350 Value Indicator
$24,000-$35,000 Value Indicator
¥470,000-¥700,000 Value Indicator
$3,050-$4,600 Value Indicator
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: 75
Year: 1966
Size: H 35cm x W 22cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2023 | Stockholms Auction House | Sweden | |||
| May 2021 | Hall's Fine Art | United Kingdom | |||
| December 2016 | Phillips London | United Kingdom | |||
| April 2015 | Christie's London | United Kingdom | |||
| May 2014 | Bonhams Los Angeles | United States | |||
| September 2013 | Christie's London | United Kingdom | |||
| April 2013 | Christie's London | United Kingdom |
Meaning & Analysis
Following a dominant theme in Hockney’s Illustrations For Fourteen Poems By C.P. Cavafy, The Beginning shows two youths in bed, naked but for the rumpled sheets covering their legs. The men appear to be the same figures from In The Dull Village and One Night, one distinguishable for his fair curly hair and the other for his dark mop. Here they are shown half sat up in bed, returning the gaze of the artist and viewer. Their bodies appear stiff as if they have been asked to pose and yet the intimacy and immediacy of their erotic encounter lingers. The background, as with so many of the prints in this series, is blank, offering no insight into the setting and pulling all the focus onto the bed with its many creases which are echoed in the body hair of the young men. Unapologetic in their nudity and their desire, the men offer a stark contrast to the original subject of the series, the Greek poet C.P. Cavafy’s poems, which were written at the turn of the 20th century when this desire was still illicit. In Hockney’s 1967 version queer love is celebrated in the open rather than hidden behind suggestion, as in Cavafy’s verses, reflecting the changing attitudes of the times.
