Celia with Green Hat
from Moving Focus

Medium: Lithograph on paper
Year: 1984
Sheet: 30×22 inches (76.2 x 55.9 cm)
Edition: 98
Artist’s Proofs: 18 AP
Printer’s Proofs: 2
Publisher: Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Mt. Kisco
Literature: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (268)

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, and Tankosha Publishing Co., Ltd., Pub., David Hockney Prints 1954 – 1995, cat. no. 268, p. 150, illustrated in color

“Celia has a beautiful face,
a very rare face with lots of things in it which appeal to me…”

Celia with Green Hat of 1984 is one of several artworks David Hockney created of his close friend and muse, designer Celia Birtwell. In this lithograph, Birtwell’s bubbly personality is reflected in her softened features and long, luscious lashes that Hockney brings to life, as we imagine her gazing adoringly at her friend while sitting for the portrait. Her hair is a crown of blazing orange that enhances the emerald of her round eyes and iconic green hat. Delineated by a strong crimson red that defines her hands and features amidst the washes of vibrant hues, the work is a loving homage to half a century of friendship that the viewer is welcomed to witness.

Pablo Picasso, Marie-Thérèse leaning on her ellbow), Paris, January 7, 1939, Private Collection.
Image: akg-images / André Held, Artwork: © Succession Picasso / DACS, London 2025 

The portrait was created during the mid-1980s when Hockney began to move away from naturalism, favouring instead early modern artists and their use of bright colours and looser modelling. Having witnessed the 1980 Picasso exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Hockney was immediately struck by the artist’s variation of style, subject matter and prolific production of work.

“It’s like the National Gallery all painted by one man…
it’s Rembrandt, Piero, Van Gogh and Degas all in one.”

After exploring the Cubist element in his photocollages the previous year – chopping square, angular frames and rearranging them to create a familiar yet vastly distorted composite image as seen in Celia Making Tea  of 1982 – Hockney tackled the concept in print with the same impassioned energy. With a keen eye for observation, Hockney was fascinated by the Cubist approach to image-making, the central tenet of which was the focus on essence as opposed to a visually cohesive “truthful” image. Having studied Celia’s emotive expressions through various early portraits, Hockney’s intimate way of seeing filters different angles and viewpoints, personalities, moods and vantage points to create a genuine portrait reflecting the entirety of Celia’s various likeness and personalities.

“The Cubists didn’t shut their eyes. People complain about Picasso – how he distorted the human face. I don’t think there are any distortions at all.”

Like Hockney, Birtwell was born in the North of England, and studied textile design at the Royal Technical College in Salford. In 1959, she met Raymond “Ossie” Clark, an up-and-coming fashion designer. The pair were married in London in 1969, with David Hockney in attendance as Clark’s best man. Although Clark initially crossed paths with Hockney in the early 1960s and his likeness first appeared in a Hockney painting titled Domestic Scene, Notting Hill  in 1963, it was not until 1969 that Hockney made his first portraits of Celia. In an ink drawing simply titled Celia, Paris,  1969, the 28-year-old Birtwell sits slightly stiffly (out of nervousness, she recalled in retrospect) on a chair in a barely furnished Parisian apartment. Upon meeting, Celia and Hockney immediately formed a special bond, and the British fashion designer has since sat for the artist on more than eighty occasions over the past five decades, most famously in his renowned painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy (1971). Today, her portrait has become a signature motif within Hockney’s oeuvre, with her likeness as familiar as the swimming pools of Los Angeles or the landscapes of Yorkshire.

Source: Phillips

Auction Results

LA Modern: 3 September 2025
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 45,720

SBI Art Auction: 26 October 2024
Estimated: JPY 4,000,000 – 7,000,000
JPY 5,750,000 / USD 37,752

DAVID HOCKNEY
Celia with Green Hat, from the “Moving Focus” Series (M.C.A.T. 268), 1984
Lithograph
Signed, dated and numbered on the lower part
From the edition of 98

Bonhams Skinner Boston: 31 January 2024
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
USD 28,160

Christie’s New-York: 28 October 2023
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 30,240

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Celia with Green Hat, from Moving Focus, 1984
Lithograph in colors on HMP handmade paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered ‘AP XVI/XVIII’
An artist’s proof, the edition was 98

Doyle New-York: 26 October 2022
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 25,000

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Celia with Green Hat, from Moving Focus, 1984
Color lithograph on white HMP handmade paper
Signed, dated and numbered 81/98 in pencil

Seoul Auction: 27 September 2022
Estimated: KRW 60,000,000 – 100,000,000
KRW 70,800,000 / USD 49,483

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Celia with Green Hat, from Moving Focus, 1984
Color lithograph on white HMP handmade paper
Signed, dated and numbered 64/98 in pencil

Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 10 October 2021
Estimated: HKD 150,000 – 240,000
HKD 403,200 / USD 51,791

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Celia with Green Hat, 1984
Lithograph in colors
Signed, dated 84 and numbered 64/98 with the publisher’s blindstamp

Sotheby’s New-York: 13 May 2021
American Visionary: The Collection of Mrs. John L. Marion
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 100,800
WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR CELIA WITH GREEN HAT

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Celia with Green Hat (M.C.A.T. 268), 1984
Lithograph on paper
Signed, dated 84 and numbered P.P. II with the publisher’s blindstamp
This work is printer’s proof number 2 from an edition of 98, plus 18 artist’s proofs and 2 printer’s proofs

Sotheby’s Paris: 1 April 2021
Estimated: EUR 12,000 – 18,000
EUR 22,680

DAVID HOCKNEY (b.1937)
Celia with Green Hat (MCA Tokyo 268), 1984
Lithograph printed in colors on wove paper
Signed in pencil, dated 1984, numbered 14/98

Christie’s London: 18 March 2020
Estimated: GBP 12,000 – 18,000
GBP 15,000 / USD 17,411

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Celia with Green Hat, 1985
Lithograph in colors on HMP handmade paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 1/98