A Rare Early Lithograph by David Hockney

“Woman with a Sewing Machine”, a rare early lithograph made by a 17-year-old David Hockney, is to be sold in the Modern and Contemporary Art Sale at Tennants Auctioneers on 15^th June with an estimate of £10,000-15,000 (plus buyer’s premium). The lithograph, which is one of approximately five proof versions of this unpublished print, is being sold by the descendants of Hockney’s school friend and fellow artist David George Fawcett (1935-1973). One of the other proof copies is held in the collection of the Tate.

In 1954 a young Hockney, much enthused by starting at Bradford College of Art the previous year, drew and painted scenes of everyday life around his home in Bradford. Thus it was subjects close to his heart that he chose for his first tentative steps into print making, which resulted in his early lithographs: “Self Portrait”, “Fish and Chip Shop” (depicting The Sea Catch, Eccleshill, Bradford), and the present “Woman with a Sewing Machine”, for which his own mother, Laura, modelled.

Loosely based on the front room in his family home, Hockney depicts his mother seated with hands clasped and looking calmly at the viewer, behind a hand-operated sewing machine amongst a riot of pattern and colour. Comprising six coloured inks (red, yellow, blue, green, pink and black), Hockney adds complexity with surface pattern rather than depth of space. The intricate checked blue, white and muted green fire surround frames the red and yellow block of his mother’s blouse, whilst the yellow and red wallpaper offsets the black sewing machine. The design is unified by detailed and precise drawing.

The image reflects the exuberance of the artist aged just 17, filled with possibilities and the joy of being allowed to spend his days at college exploring the world of art. Learning about great artists that came before him, he was perhaps inspired by the likes of Edouard Vuillard, who produced intimate domestic scenes, filled with pattern and texture, that featured his mother, a seamstress. 

This lithograph was once owned by Bradford-born artist David George Fawcett, with whom Hockney was at school both at Bradford Grammar School and at Bradford College of Art. Fawcett went on to gain his teaching diploma at Birmingham Regional College of Art before moving to Kent where he taught at Deal Grammar School and Folkestone and Dover Art Colleges. Hockney and Fawcett shared a studio for a time in Kent, and Hockney was best man for Fawcett at his wedding. Fawcett worked in an impressionistic style, and exhibited at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy, but sadly died in a plane crash in 1973.

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