Stepping into David Hockney’s Kensington studio in March 1968 was like walking straight into the heart of a painting in progress. Sunlight flooded the high-ceilinged Victorian room, picking out pots of acrylic paint, splayed brushes and reference photographs pinned directly onto the canvas of L’Arbois, St-Maxime.
As a sports photographer by trade, this commission pulled me far from football pitches and boxing rings into a different kind of theatre – the quiet intensity of an artist at work. Hockney, relaxed and generous, gave me complete freedom to move around the studio, capturing him in those unguarded moments where concentration takes over and personality shines through. My photographs from that day now live in the David Hockney Gallery on this site, preserving a pivotal chapter in the early career of one of Britain’s most celebrated artists.
L’Arbois, St-Maxime would later become recognised as one of Hockney’s key early works, a bridge between his student years and the iconic pool paintings of the 1970s. Even then, he spoke of the south of France as a painter’s paradise, and you can see that Mediterranean light echoed in the thin acrylic washes he laid down at speed. The photographs in the gallery show Hockney testing colour, pausing in thought beside his paint trolley, and finally posing with the near-completed painting – images that now connect the finished work to the moment of its creation.
Decades later, a chance conversation at my local framer in October 2024 brought this assignment back to life. Hearing that L’Arbois, St-Maxime was about to headline a Sotheby’s sale sent me searching the archives for my original transparencies, eventually tracing them through the Guardian’s (formerly Observer) picture library. The rediscovered photographs now form the core of our David Hockney Gallery, inviting you into that Kensington studio at the exact moment before history decided this painting’s place in the canon.
Whether you are a collector, student of art history, or simply a fan of Hockney’s work, we invite you to explore the full gallery and step inside the studio where it all began.