El Dorado

When in Berlin, Hockney became interested in the image of a female Egyptian figure for his art. He completed an oil painting towards the end of 1962 called The First Marriage (A Marriage of Styles I) (Tate, London), in which he places Jeff next to a seated Egyptian female figure, very similar to the one in El Dorado. This was inspired by a visit that he and Jeff made to a museum in Berlin, 'Suddenly I caught sight of him standing next to an Egyptian sculpted figure ... Both figures were looking the same way, and it amused me that in my first glimpse of them they looked united ... A day or two later I made a drawing of the scene, and then back in London I concocted it more elaborately' (see N. Stangos (ed.), David Hockney by David Hockney, London, 1976, p. 89).