Study of Water in a Pool

David Hockney’s fascination with the shimmering, amorphous nature of water dates to his move to California in 1966. In his Study of Water in a Pool, made a few years after, the light infused, turquoise colouring of the pool’s surface and sinuous ripples echo works from the artist’s celebrated California Dreaming series, including such sun-drenched scenes as Sunbather, 1966, held at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne. The warm glow of Study of Water in a Pool anticipates the cloudless blue skies and strong sunlight that would come to characterise his later California paintings. In Study of Water in a Pool, Hockney especially captures an impression of tranquillity found in the stillness of the swimming pool. The form of the drawing itself reaffirms the wave, as if the water is lapping at the border of the page and moving beyond it.