Contrejour In The French Style

Medium: Etching and aquatint in colors on wove paper
Year: 1974
Sheet: 39 1/8 x 36 1/4 inches (99.5 x 92 cm)
Edition: 75
Artist’s Proofs: 18
Publisher: Petersburg Press, New-York and London
Literature: Scottish Arts Council (167), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (153)

Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil with the artist’s copyright blindstamp

Based on a painting of the same title (Museum Ludwig, Cologne), Contrejour in the French style was inspired by a window in the Pavilion de Flore, at the south-west corner of the Louvre.

“The first time I went [to the Louvre] I saw this window with the blind pulled down and the formal garden beyond. And I thought, oh it’s marvelous! marvelous! This is a picture in itself.”

Hockney had relocated to Paris in 1973, a move precipitated by the souring of his relationship with his former lover Peter Schlesinger. While in Paris, Hockney had the opportunity to work with the renowned etcher Aldo Crommelynck, who had collaborated closely with Picasso.

“It was thrilling to meet somebody who’d had such direct contact with Picasso and worked with him such a lot. He taught me marvelous technical things about etching.”

In particular, Crommelynck instructed Hockney in color etching, using a new method that allowed for greater spontaneity in the creation of the color plates, the traditional process of which was notoriously technical. While the etching of Contrejour follows the composition of the painting closely, Hockney re-interprets the interior scene with a range of intaglio techniques to create variations of line and texture. The speckled wallpaper, a nod to pointillism, is rendered with sugar-lift; the muted sunlight on the walls of the alcove with soft-ground etching; the golden blind and clipped lawn of the garden with aquatint; and the intricately cross-hatched parquet floor with hard-ground etching.

Auction Results

Christie’s online: 27 March 2025
Estimated: GBP 26,000 – 28,000
GBP 56,700 / USD 73,143

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Contrejour in the French Style (MCAT 153), 1974
Etching and aquatint in colours on wove paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 47/75 (there were also 18 artist’s proofs)

Christie’s online: 28 September 2022
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 60,480 / USD 65,461

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Contrejour in the French Style, 1974
Etching and aquatint in colors on wove paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 39/75

Sotheby’s New-York: 21 April 2022
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 88,200

DAVID HOCKNEY
Contrejour in the French Style, 1974
Etching and aquatint printed in colors on Inveresk mould-made paper
Signed in pencil, dated and inscribed ‘AP XI’
An artist’s proof aside from the numbered edition of 75

Christie’s online: 24 March 2022
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 56,700 / USD 74,370

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Contrejour in the French Style, 1974
Etching and aquatint in colors on wove paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 30/75

Christie’s online: 28 September 2021
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 75,000 / USD 101,900

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Contrejour in the French Style, 1974
Etching and aquatint in colors on wove paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 11/75

Bukowskis Stockholm: 20 April 2021
Estimated: SEK 150,000 – 175,000
SEK 750,000 (Hammer)
SEK 937,500 / USD 111,090

Christie’s London: 1 April 2021
Estimated: GBP 26,000 – 35,000
GBP 93,750 / USD 129,695
AUCTION RECORD FOR CONTREJOUR IN THE FRENCH STYLE

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Contrejour in the French Style, 1974
Etching and aquatint in colors on wove paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 26/75

Phillips New-York: 23 April 2019
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 37,500