Lot Essay
Executed in 1976, Chair in Henry's House is at once a virtuoso demonstration of David Hockney's draughtsmanship and a fascinating insight into his own circle of friends. The eponymous "Henry" was the great curator, Henry Geldzahler, who had been born in Belgium but became one of the towering figures of Post-War American art, especially following his celebrated exhibition New York Painting and Sculpture 1940-1970, which he organized while working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the age of only 33. As well as appearing in several of Hockney's pictures, including the famous 1969 double portrait showing him sitting with Christopher Scott in profile, in attendance; it is a mark of their friendship that Hockney even depicted him on his deathbed.
Hockney probably created Chair in Henry's House during one of his stays on Fire Island, New York. Hockney had become a regular visitor there, staying with various friends over the years, and was captured with Henry Geldzahler in a photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe during his 1976 visit. Geldzahler, who died in 1994, had struck up a great friendship with Hockney that was in part founded on their shared passion for art. And it is that passion that is evident in every level in Chair in Henry's House: in the beautiful execution, in the Picasso exhibition catalogue perched on the chair and in the drawing's overall reference to Vincent van Gogh's 1888 painting Gauguin's Armchair (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Hockney himself would return to the theme of Van Gogh's pictures chairs in a group of works he created to celebrate the centenary of the Dutch painter's arrival in Arles).
By creating this portrait-by-proxy of Geldzahler and by paying homage to the friendship between Gauguin and Van Gogh, Hockney is clearly showing his own respect for the curator. At the same time, this image is profoundly intimate in its depiction of a seemingly informal, cluttered corner of Geldzahler's house, lending it an intensely personal atmosphere that was markedly absent in the large-scale, highly-formalized double portrait.
Hockney probably created Chair in Henry's House during one of his stays on Fire Island, New York. Hockney had become a regular visitor there, staying with various friends over the years, and was captured with Henry Geldzahler in a photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe during his 1976 visit. Geldzahler, who died in 1994, had struck up a great friendship with Hockney that was in part founded on their shared passion for art. And it is that passion that is evident in every level in Chair in Henry's House: in the beautiful execution, in the Picasso exhibition catalogue perched on the chair and in the drawing's overall reference to Vincent van Gogh's 1888 painting Gauguin's Armchair (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Hockney himself would return to the theme of Van Gogh's pictures chairs in a group of works he created to celebrate the centenary of the Dutch painter's arrival in Arles).
By creating this portrait-by-proxy of Geldzahler and by paying homage to the friendship between Gauguin and Van Gogh, Hockney is clearly showing his own respect for the curator. At the same time, this image is profoundly intimate in its depiction of a seemingly informal, cluttered corner of Geldzahler's house, lending it an intensely personal atmosphere that was markedly absent in the large-scale, highly-formalized double portrait.