Three Kings and a Queen
Medium: Etching and aquatint on handmade paper
Year: 1961
Image: 9 1/8 x 25 7/8 inches (23.3 x 65.8 cm)
Sheet: 22 5/8 x 30 7/8 inches (57.4 x 78.3 cm)
Edition: Approximately 50
Publisher: The Artist
Literature: Scottish Art Council (7), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (7)
Signed and dated in pencil
Three Kings and a Queen embodies David Hockney’s subtly subversive aesthetic as he explores history from representations in conjunction with his own identity as a gay man. On first impression, the etching is a whimsical interpretation of playing cards. Yet, when put into the context of Hockney’s life, this etching unfolds as a refusal of heteronormative conformity.
The artist created Three Kings and a Queen in 1961 while he was a student at the Royal College of Art. Unable to afford painting materials, etching became Hockney’s preferred medium due to its affordability. During his diploma in etching, the artist pushed the boundaries of the medium, not only in the printing process but also in the emotional encounters within his work, encouraged by artist and professor of printmaking Julian Trevelyan. While his contemporaries explored commercial imagery and consumer culture, Hockney developed a more personal set of works, creating paintings and prints that combined autobiography, literary references and coded representations of homosexual desires at a time when such content remained legally dangerous in the United Kingdom.
Three Kings and a Queen is a visual manifestation of Hockney’s deeply personal aesthetic, inspired by illustrations from a book on the history of card games. Contrasting with the rigid containment of playing cards, Hockney’s whimsical cartoons explode from their geometric confines, parodying the strict social perimeters of 1960s Britain. The letter ‘K’ identifies the kings, its omission from one figure designates this specific figure as a queen. Art historian Jane Kinsman argues that this omission serves as a visual pun as “king” being the slang term for a gay man. Here, the queen brandishes a phallic sword: a dynamic cacophony of etched lines becomes a vivid symbol of Hockney’s fight for his right to love.
This etching won Hockney the Robert Erskine Graeme Shankland Prize, earning him £100 to fund his first trip to New York in the summer of 1961 – a city where the open attitude toward sexuality offered a liberating exploration for Hockey to develop his personal and artistic identity.
Source: Phillips
Auction Results
Phillips London: 19 September 2026
Estimated: GBP 6,000 – 8,000
GBP 4,515 / USD 6,050
DAVID HOCKNEY
Three Kings and a Queen (S.A.C. 7, M.C.A.T. 7), 1961
Etching and aquatint on handmade paper
Signed and dated in pencil
From the edition of approximately 50
Published by the artist