David Hockney, Portrait of the Artist (Pool with Two Characters)

A great picture showing the dilemma of double life.

The painting shows Hockney’s lover the artist, Peter Schlesinger looking down into the pool where the figure of another man looms. The scene is immersed in the landscape of southern France. Hockney is a landscape painter by passion, as he claims there are no boring landscapes, it can only be boring to present them on canvas.

In this picture, however, the landscape is only a background to the unfolding … drama? let’s use this word to describe the tension between two characters. We see two men, one over and one under the water. The context is built by the knowledge of Hockney’s biography: he painted this canvas after parting with his lover and after an argument in Cadaques, Spain. The painting draws inspiration from Hockney’s visit to the United States and his enchantment with the local gay scene.

One can reflect on this image and ponder … one of them might be reflection on the fate of homosexual love in a homophobic world where a homosexual man is left alone with his desires hidden beneath the surface of the water. You can also make business considerations and purchase this painting
for $ 90 million, which happened at the New York auction.

David Hockney was born on July 9, 1937 in Bradford, England. He is a painter, draftsman, graphic artist, photographer and set designer, whose works are characterized by economy of technique, interest in the issue of light in the picture and realism drawn from pop art and photography in showing ordinary, prosaic topics.