David Hockney

Life and work

David Hockney was a British painter, printmaker, photographer and stage designer, born in Bradford in 1937 and active across seven decades until his death in 2026. He trained at Bradford College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, where his early work placed him among the artists associated with the British pop art movement of the 1960s. He later settled in Los Angeles, where swimming pools, light and the California landscape became recurring subjects, before spending long periods back in Yorkshire, whose countryside he painted extensively in his later career. Hockney worked across painting, drawing, stage design and, from the 2010s, digital drawing on a tablet, alongside a sustained practice in printmaking that ran in parallel with his painting from the very start of his career.

Editions and unique works

Printmaking was central to Hockney's practice rather than a sideline. He produced etchings, aquatints, lithographs and screenprints with publishers such as Editions Alecto and Gemini G.E.L., issued in numbered editions that are catalogued separately from his unique paintings and drawings. He also made prints by unconventional means, including a series he called home made prints, produced on a colour copier rather than through a traditional print workshop and issued in small editions of their own. These groups trade differently at auction. Signed, numbered etchings and lithographs from named publishers tend to hold steadier prices than posters or later reproductions, and the home made copier prints form a distinct, lower priced category. LLB Auction has sold fourteen lots attributed to Hockney, a pattern consistent with the print and edition side of his output rather than his unique paintings, which move in a different market entirely.

What a specialist examines

For a Hockney print or edition, a specialist looks first at the signature, usually in pencil at the lower right, and the edition number, typically written as a fraction at the lower left. Publisher blindstamps, such as the Editions Alecto mark, help confirm which workshop issued a print and in what edition size, information that is often printed on the auction house's own lot page. For the home made copier prints, the printing method itself, described on lot pages as made on a colour copier rather than pulled by hand, is part of what a buyer needs to know before comparing a price to a traditional etching or lithograph. Provenance, a documented ownership history reaching back toward the publisher or an early exhibition, and a condition report noting fading, foxing or trimming of the sheet all matter for works on paper of this kind. The body that examines further questions about a specific work is listed under Career.

Market position

At auction, Hockney's editions have sold across a wide range depending on process, edition size and subject. Phillips sold an etching and lithograph for Editions Alecto for £4,410 in London in 2022. Bonhams sold the poster Sun, for David Hockney Prints 1954 to 77 for $1,275 in an online sale in 2019, later sold the home made copier print Jug on Table for $11,520 in 2024, and sold the etching The Rescued Princess for $1,792 in an online sale in 2023. Ketterer Kunst in Munich sold the etching and aquatint My bonnie lies over the ocean for €17,500 in 2014 and the lithograph Lillies for €21,875 in 2019. These figures show a wide floor to ceiling range within the prints and editions category alone, well below the prices his unique paintings reach at the same houses.

Preparing a valuation request

A seller preparing a Hockney print or edition for sale should have the original invoice or a documented chain of ownership, clear photographs of the signature, edition number and any blindstamp, and a photograph of the verso showing publisher marks or old exhibition labels. The exact medium, whether etching, lithograph, screenprint or home made copier print, and the sheet size should be recorded precisely, since these details separate one edition from another. A condition report covering the paper, any mat staining, and whether the sheet has been trimmed from its original margins helps an auction house place the work correctly. Any record of the work's exhibition or publication history, however brief, should be kept together with the piece.