David Hockney British, b.1937
Portrait of Cavafy in Alexandria, from Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy, 1966

£8,500

Etching
Signed and dated in pencil (lower right) and numbered ‘33/75’ (lower left)
Edition C, Published by Editions Alecto Limited, London, 1967
35cm x 23cm (plate size), (61.5cm x 47cm framed)

Hockney created a series of touching and intimate etchings depicting gay love prior to the decriminalisation of the homosexuality in UK. At the time, they were daring and groundbreaking. They were made to illustrate a series of erotic poems by the Greek-Egyptian writer C. P. Cavafy. Hockney greatly admired Cavafy’s ability to write openly and unapologetically about gay relationships. Many of Hockney’s illustrations are based on intimate sketches of his friends. Others were drawn from photographs. The backgrounds in the series, are based on a trip Hockney took to Beirut, Lebanon in 1966. He felt that Beirut’s cosmopolitan atmosphere made it the contemporary equivalent of Cavafy’s native Alexandria, Egypt. A full set of these etchings is in the Tate Gallery collection.