Name: Number One Chair
Brand: David Hockney
Rating: 5 (238 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of David Hockney’s Number One Chair (signed) is estimated to be worth between £30,000 and £45,000. This lithograph print, created in 1986, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 29%. Over the past 12 months, the artwork has sold once, at an average selling price of £35,000. In the last five years, the hammer price has ranged from £14,847 in October 2023 to £35,000 in June 2025. Since its first sale in March 2017, this artwork has been sold 7 times, demonstrating its desirability. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 60.

Meaning & Analysis

Here we see Hockney returning to one of his favourite subjects, the chair. Such is the artist’s talent at depicting these items of household furniture that every single one of his chairs is infused with its own personality. In Number One Chair we find a wicker chair of the kind you might find in a conservatory, topped with a pink cushion covered in floral pattern. The texture of the chair is heightened by its setting on floorboards which appear to have been cut up and rearranged so that they meet at crazed angles, adding a sense of unease and movement to the scene. In the background more furniture recedes into the distance, picked out with simple lines and playing second fiddle to the ‘Number One Chair’ which has been lovingly drawn in detail and coloured a vibrant yellow. The work is part of the Moving Focus series which saw Hockney experimenting with perspective and movement in a portfolio of lithographs which spans three years during the mid-80s. Influenced by Cubism as well as his previous photographic collages, the works show his unfailing ability to challenge the limits of medium and his constant aim to show the world how his eye sees, how he ‘feels space’.