Autour de la maison, été
Medium: Monumental inkjet print in colours on a single sheet of wove paper
Year: 2019
Sheet: 31 1/2 x 472 3/8 inches (80cm x 12m)
Edition: 15
Publisher: The Artist
Signed, dated and numbered in pencil with the artist’s blindstamp
Among David Hockney’s late-career works, the monumental panoramic landscapes created from digital drawings stand as some of the most ambitious and technically innovative pieces he has produced. Autour de la maison – Été (2019), executed as an iPad drawing and printed in a very small edition of fifteen impressions, belongs to this remarkable body of work developed during the final decade of the artist’s career. The piece exemplifies Hockney’s ongoing exploration of landscape, technology, and perception, while also reflecting the deeply personal connection he has maintained with the rural environment of his native Yorkshire.
Autour de la maison – Été (2019) belongs to the remarkable group of landscape works David Hockney created shortly after relocating to Normandy in northern France. Beginning in 2019, the artist settled in a farmhouse in the Pays d’Auge region, where he became intensely engaged with the surrounding countryside. The move initiated what has since become known as the Normandy series, one of the most important bodies of work produced during the final phase of Hockney’s career. The present work reflects this new environment. Rather than the wide agricultural fields and open horizons of Yorkshire that characterized his earlier landscapes, the Normandy works focus on the immediate surroundings of the artist’s house and garden, orchards, ponds, small rural roads, hedgerows, and agricultural buildings. In Autour de la maison – Été, Hockney captures the landscape around his home during the peak of summer, transforming a familiar rural setting into a richly detailed panoramic composition.
The work unfolds across an extraordinarily long horizontal format, creating a sweeping visual panorama that stretches across the viewer’s field of vision. The title itself—Autour de la maison (“Around the house”), suggests that the image represents a visual walk through the environment surrounding the artist’s residence. The landscape is animated by a vivid palette dominated by greens, punctuated with touches of pink, blue, and warm earth tones. Trees, hedges, and cultivated fields extend across the entire composition, creating a rhythmic pattern of vegetation that evokes the lush character of the Normandy countryside.
In the foreground, small ponds and flowering plants introduce bursts of color and reflection, adding a sense of life and movement to the scene. Further along the panorama, several cars appear parked near farm buildings, suggesting the presence of daily activity within what might otherwise seem a timeless rural environment. Scattered structures, barns, sheds, and agricultural buildings—anchor the composition within a real geographical setting. These buildings reinforce the sense that the viewer is not looking at an idealized landscape but at a lived-in environment that the artist observes closely from day to day. The composition ultimately reads as a continuous visual narrative: the viewer’s eye travels slowly from one section of the landscape to another, experiencing the scene almost as if walking through it.
The panoramic structure allows Hockney to combine multiple observations within a single composition, producing an experience closer to walking through the environment than simply observing it.
Like many of Hockney’s late works, Autour de la maison – Été originated as a digital drawing created on an iPad. Beginning around 2009, Hockney adopted the iPhone and later the iPad as primary drawing tools. Using specialized drawing applications, he produced images directly on the screen with a stylus or his finger. The digital format allowed him to work rapidly, layering color and line with remarkable freedom. Once completed, the digital drawings were printed at large scale using sophisticated inkjet printing techniques. The prints preserve the luminous color and immediacy of the digital image while achieving the monumental presence of traditional painting.
In this work, the digital medium is visible in the finely repeated dot patterns that form the ground and sky, as well as in the vibrant saturation of the colors. The line work remains fluid and expressive, demonstrating Hockney’s continued commitment to drawing as the foundation of his artistic practice.
Hockney’s move to Normandy in 2019 marked the beginning of an extraordinary period of productivity. The artist became fascinated with the seasonal transformations of the landscape surrounding his house. Working almost daily, he documented the changing environment—trees blossoming in spring, lush summer vegetation, autumn colors, and winter frost. Many of these works were created digitally, allowing him to respond immediately to what he observed. The Normandy series culminated in several ambitious projects, including monumental multi-panel landscapes and immersive installations presented in major museum exhibitions. What distinguishes these works is their intimacy. Rather than depicting grand vistas, Hockney focuses on the immediate environment of his daily life, transforming ordinary scenes into vibrant explorations of color, light, and space.
At its core, Autour de la maison – Été reflects Hockney’s lifelong fascination with the experience of looking. Traditional landscape painting often presents a single fixed viewpoint, but Hockney has long argued that human perception is far more dynamic. As we move through space, our view changes continuously. The panoramic structure of this work embodies that idea. The composition appears to combine multiple observations into a single image, suggesting the passage of time as the viewer moves around the property.
The presence of cars, paths, and buildings further reinforces the sense of a lived landscape—one that is part of everyday life rather than a distant scenic view. Ultimately, the work celebrates the act of attentive observation. It transforms a familiar rural environment into a complex visual tapestry, reminding viewers that the ordinary world can reveal extraordinary beauty when observed carefully. At the same time, the vibrant colors and rhythmic patterns transform the countryside into a visual celebration of nature’s vitality. The image radiates a sense of calm attentiveness, reflecting the artist’s profound appreciation for the landscape that surrounded him in his later years.
The Normandy landscapes represent one of the most important chapters in David Hockney’s late career. Even in his eighties, the artist continued to explore new technologies and new ways of representing space. The use of digital tools allowed him to work with remarkable immediacy while maintaining the clarity and vibrancy that characterize his painting. Works such as Autour de la maison – Été demonstrate that Hockney’s curiosity and experimental spirit remained undiminished. Rather than revisiting earlier achievements, he continued to reinvent his approach to landscape, perception, and image-making.
Throughout his life, Hockney has repeatedly embraced new technologies, from photocopiers and fax machines in the 1980s to digital drawing tools in the 2000s and 2010s. Each technological shift allowed him to rethink how images are constructed and experienced. The large-scale iPad landscapes demonstrate that even in his eighties, Hockney remained deeply engaged with experimentation and innovation. Rather than repeating earlier successes, he continued to expand the possibilities of contemporary image-making.
Auction Results
Christie’s online: 28 September 2022
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 250,000
GBP 302,400 / USD 349,685
DAVID HOCKNEY (b. 1937)
Autour de la maison, été, 2019
Inkjet print in colors on a single sheet of wove paper
80 x 1,200 cm
Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 12/15