Robert Littman, Los Angeles, 3 September 1999

David Hockney was fascinated by Renaissance and early modern portraiture, and was especially interested in the camera lucida, a small device which, as Hockney argued, may have helped artists at the time achieve a high level of realism. The framing of this portrait bears resemblance to the type of portraiture he was studying, notably that by Jan van Eyck.

He wrote of the device: 'you must use it quickly, for once the eye has moved the image is really lost. A skilled artist could make quick notations, marking the key points of the subject’s features…after these notations have been made, the hard work begins of observing from life and translating the marks into a more complete form'. This formulation of the technique may bring to light the quick but assured strokes which make up the contours of the piece.