Dog Wall

The complete set of 15 etchings
Medium: Etching on watermarked Somerset wove paper
Year: 1998
Varying dimensions
Largest Image: 45.7 x 65 cm (17 7/8 x 25 5/8 inches)
Largest Sheet: 56.8 x 75.9 cm (22 3/8 x 29 7/8 inches)
Edition: 35
Artist’s Proofs: 10
Publisher: Pace Editions, Inc., New York

Each signed, dated and numbered in pencil

 

Comprised of fifteen etchings, David Hockney’s Dog Wall is a large-scale homage to his two beloved dachshunds: Stanley and Little Boodgie. Depicted lounging in a variety of positions – sometimes together, sometimes individually – Dog Wall attests to the artist’s adoration of his pets while simultaneously exemplifying the brilliance of his draughtsmanship.

“These two dear little creatures are my friends. They are intelligent, loving, comical and often bored. They watch me work; I notice the warm shapes they make together, their sadness and their delights. And, being Hollywood dogs, they somehow seem to know that a picture is being made”

Realised in 1998, the Dog Wall portfolio was produced soon after Hockney’s close friend and master printer Maurice Payne moved into the artist’s Los Angeles home for a year. In Hockney’s Montcalm Avenue residence, Payne set up a fully-functioning etching studio. He took to leaving prepared etching plates all around Hockney’s house, which the artist would then spontaneously use as he might a sketchbook. This sense of freedom is exhibited in every individual charming etching that comprises Dog Wall, with each print serving as a quick study of the dachshunds. Captured at speed – before the dogs darted off again – Hockney uses variations in line to depict the pair as rapidly yet realistically as possible. In some prints, delicately and sporadically placed lines conjure up the face of an animal at rest, with the negative space of the unmarked surface acting as an oasis of stillness. In other etchings, densely packed lines overlap into pulsating balls of energy, adding a vitality to the prints and conveying the lively personalities of Stanley and Little Boodgie, even in the brief moments of calm that Hockney sought to capture. Serving as a composite portrait of his two pets, Dog Wall is an exquisite study in mark making executed entirely in monochrome.

“They sleep with me; I’m always with them. They don’t go anywhere without me and only occasionally do I leave them. They’re like little people to me”

Left: David Hockney, 1992. Image: Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Right: David Hockney with his Dachshund. Image: Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo 

Hockney’s love for sausage dogs was sparked by Heinz, the cherished dachshund of his close friend Ian Falconer. Upon seeing how besotted Hockney was with Heinz, Falconer took the artist to pick out Stanley at the breeders, with Little Boodgie joining the Hockney household a few years later. Hockney credits his canine companions with helping him through a very difficult time in his life. Having lost many friends in the 1980s and early 1990s to AIDS, Hockney was particularly affected when revered art historian and close friend Henry Geldzahler succumbed to liver cancer in 1994.

Stanley and Little Boodgie proved essential to helping Hockney through his grief and were first immortalized in 1995 in a series of paintings titled Dog Days. Hockney’s repeated meditations on his two dachshunds epitomize his devotion to the dogs, with Dog Wall serving as the most refined, multi-faceted representation of their individual personalities. Hockney’s depictions of Stanley and Little Boodgie are in good art historical company, as both Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol also immortalized their pet dachshunds – called Lump and Archie respectively – through their artworks.

Source: Phillips

 

Dog Etching No. 1

Dog Etching No. 1
Dimensions: 12 5/8 x 14 1/4 inches

Dog Etching No. 2

Dog Etching No. 2
Dimensions: 16 5/8 x 18 3/8 inches

Dog Etching No. 3

Dog Etching No. 3
Dimensions: 16 5/8 x 18 3/8 inches

Dog Etching No. 4

Dog Etching No. 4
Dimensions: 22 1/4 x 29 3/4 inches

Dog Etching No. 5

Dog Etching No. 5
Dimensions: 16 5/8 x 18 3/8 inches

Dog Etching No. 6

Dog Etching No. 6
Dimensions: 12 5/8 x 14 1/4 inches

Dog Etching No. 7

Dog Etching No. 7
Dimensions: 18 5/8 x 16 3/8 inches

Dog Etching No. 8

Dog Etching No. 8
Dimensions: 16 5/8 x 18 3/8 inches

Dog Etching No. 9

Dog Etching No. 9
Dimensions: 16 5/8 x 18 3/8 inches

Dog Etching No. 10

Dog Etching No. 10
Dimensions: 22 1/4 x 29 3/4 inches

Dog Etching No. 11

Dog Etching No. 11
Dimensions: 12 5/8 x 14 1/4 inches

Dog Etching No. 12

Dog Etching No. 12
Dimensions: 16 5/8 x 22 3/8 inches

Dog Etching No. 13

Dog Etching No. 13
Dimensions: 15 5/8 x 22 3/8 inches

Dog Etching No. 14

Dog Etching No. 14
Dimensions: 25 3/4 x 22 1/4 inches

Dog Etching No. 15

Dog Etching No. 15
Dimensions: 12 5/8 x 14 1/4 inches

 

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Auction Results

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1. Single Etchings

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Christie’s London: 27 September 2023
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 25,000
GBP 20,160

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Dog Wall: one plate, 1998
Etching on wove paper
Signed in pencil, dated and inscribed BaT
A bon à tirer impression before the edition of 35

Christie’s New-York: 19 July 2023
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 40,320 

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Dog Etching No. 10, from Dog Wall, 1998
Etching on Somerset paper
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered ‘A.P. X/X’
An artist’s proof, the edition was 35

Christie’s London: 28 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 4,000 – 6,000
GBP 40,320

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Dog Wall: One Plate, 1998
Etching on watermarked Somerset wove paper
Signed in pencil, date and numbered 20/35

Christie’s London: 28 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 3,000 – 5,000
GBP 30,240

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Dog Wall: One Plate, 1998
Etching on Somerset paper
Signed in pencil, date and numbered 20/35

Christie’s London: 28 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 3,000 – 5,000
GBP 35,280

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Dog Wall: One Plate, 1998
Etching on Somerset paper
Signed in pencil, date and numbered 20/35

Christie’s London: 28 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 3,000 – 5,000
GBP 40,320

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Dog Wall: One Plate, 1998
Etching on Somerset paper
Signed in pencil, date and numbered 20/35

Christie’s London: 28 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 3,000 – 5,000
GBP 23,940

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Dog Wall: One Plate, 1998
Etching on Somerset paper
Signed in pencil, dated and numbered 20/35

Christie’s London: 28 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 3,000 – 5,000
GBP 23,940

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Dog Wall: One Plate, 1998
Etching on Somerset paper
Signed in pencil, date and numbered 20/35

Christie’s London: 28 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 3,000 – 5,000
GBP 37,800

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
Dog Wall: One Plate, 1998
Etching on Somerset paper
Signed in pencil, date and numbered 20/35

 

2. Complete Sets

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Phillips London: 19 September 2024
Estimated: GBP 25,000 – 35,000
GBP 317,500 / USD 412,433

DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Dog Wall, 1998
The complete set of 15 etchings on Somerset wove paper
The largest sheet: 22 3/8 x 29 7/8 inches (56.7 x 76 cm)
Each signed in pencil, dated and numbered 6/35

Phillips London: 19 January 2023
Estimated: GBP 200,000 – 300,000
GBP 327,600 / USD 405,094

DAVID HOCKNEY
Dog Wall, 1998
The complete set of 15 etchings, on Somerset paper
All signed, dated and numbered 23/35 in pencil
(there were also 10 artist’s proofs)