Portrait of Henry Geldzahler

One of Hockney's favourite sitters was his close friend and traveling companion Henry Geldzahler (1935-1994). Geldzahler, curator of 20th Century Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a highly respected writer, was an eager model for the artist, sitting for him many times over the course of the years. Flamboyant and quick-witted, Geldzahler shared Hockney's enthusiasm for literature and opera. Hockney later recalled 'He was very, very funny, very clever, and we had the same kind of taste. I thought we had a similar way of looking at life' (D. Hockney, quoted in Hockney: The Biography, London, 2011, p. 129). An early champion of the artist, it was Geldzahler who introduced Hockney to the New York art world where he encountered artists such as Andy Warhol (memorably captured in the photograph by Dennis Hopper), as well as Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly. With his deep knowledge of art and his expert eye, Geldzahler became one of the few people from whom Hockney got critical feedback about his work. In his memorable introduction to the artist's autobiography of 1974, Gelzahler eloquently compares Hockney's fascination with the portrait with the Cubists's love of still-life:

'Hockney has never been interested in the commissioned portrait. As he has become increasingly fascinated by exactly how things look and in finding ways to paint what he sees with greater veracity, he has turned quite naturally to drawing and painting his close friends again and again. They are his guitar, absinthe bottle and journal, the objects of his affection' (H. Gelzahler, quoted in David Hockney by David Hockney, London, 1974, p. 9).