Self-Portrait

Medium: Etching and aquatint on wove paper
Year: 1962
Plate: 18 7/8 x 10 1/4 inches (48 x 26.2 cm)
Sheet: 19 3/4 x 13 1/2 inches (50.1 x 34.3 cm)
Edition: only three known impressions
Literature: not in MCAT

There are only three other known examples of this rare, early etching dating from 1962. One proof is currently located in the collection of the artist, and of the other two that have come up for sale, a second is now owned by the Tate Gallery, London. The artist made the work in his final year at the Royal College of Art in London. Entitled Self Portrait, the etching humorously dances around themes of erotic desire, the ‘real self’ vs. ‘the ideal self’ and Hockney’s interest at this time in his own sexuality.

A muscular male nude, that bears little resemblance to Hockney, dominates the image while a much smaller, much less-muscular figure wearing glasses is superimposed over the top. This imagery of the ideal self, exemplified in the muscular nude and the floating classical torso, juxtaposes the skinny figure and the awkward spectacled self-portrait that closely resembles the artist himself. The self-deprecating depictions, the representations of male sexuality, both classical and modern, and the amusing phallic references (a compositor’s stick held by a delicate, gloved hand), were all central themes to Hockney’s work in the 1960s.

Auction Results

Sotheby’s New-York: 18 October 2023
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 33,020

DAVID HOCKNEY (b.1937)
Self-Portrait (not in M.C.A.T), 1962
Etching and aquatint on wove paper
An unrecorded proof aside from just three known unnumbered impressions

Bonhams London: 16 December 2021
Estimated: GBP 7,000 – 10,000
GBP 50,250 / USD 67,146