Woman with a Sewing Machine

Medium: Lithograph in colors on cartridge paper (backed to Japan)
Year: 1954
Image: 22.6 x 37.8 cm (8 7/8 x 14 7/8 inches)
Sheet: 34.1 x 44.2 cm (13 3/8 x 17 3/8 inches)
Edition: 5 known impressions
Printer: The Artist, Bradford
Literature: Scottish Arts Council (2), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2)

Woman with a Sewing Machine is one of Hockney’s earliest forays into the medium of lithography. It was completed soon after the artist enrolled at the Bradford School of Art in 1953 at age 16. Hockney was overjoyed to leave grammar school and enroll at the art college.

“It was thrilling to be at a school where I knew I would enjoy everything they asked me to do. I loved it all and I used to spend twelve hours a day in the art school.”

The school emphasized the importance of observational drawing and traditional study of perspective, anatomy and tonal values. Despite his young age, Hockney’s adept understanding of draughtsmanship, color and composition is evident in the prints he made at this time. This print  provides a tender insight into the artist’s formative years and stands as one of the earliest and most rare prints produced by the artist.

This print depicts Hockney’s mother, Laura, sat neatly before a large black sewing machine. She smiles contently and her gaze is directed outwards at the viewer. In the background, the vibrant hues of the fireplace and patterned wallpaper evoke their family living room. This personal, domestic interior bares close resemblance to Edouard Vuillard’s lithographs of his own mother, a seamstress, engaged in her craft amidst patterned domestic surroundings.

Edouard Vuillard, La Cuisinière, from “Landscapes and Interiors”, 1899, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Image: © National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Rosenwald Collection, 1950.16.269

From this early point, Hockney began engaging in artistic dialogue with preceding modern masters and harnessing the potentials of graphic techniques – a practice he has consistently upheld throughout his career.

Source: Phillips

Auction Results

Christie’s London: 17 February 2012
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 10,000 / USD 15,815

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Woman with a Sewing Machine (S.A.C. 3; Tokyo 3), 1954
Six lithographs in colors on four sheets of cartridge paper
Comprising five rare, unrecorded working proofs (two printed recto and verso) and one final state
All printed by the artist
The final proof signed in red ink and dedicated Edwin La Dell in pencil
(S.A.C. records approximately five proofs of the final state)

Christie’s London: 5 December 2000
Estimated: GBP 4,000 – 6,000
GBP 4,465 / USD 6,820

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Woman with a Sewing Machine (Scottish Arts Council 2), 1954
Lithograph printed in colors on wove paper
From the edition of about five impressions