He said, ‘The border police must know you very well, David.’ ”65 Hamilton offered to put them up and Hockney spent the time making a marvellous etching of him sitting in a chair holding a cheroot in his right hand. And that something is the element of risk, of doubt.”34, He decided to take a much-needed break from portraiture. “I met Peter when he was eighteen,” he says, “and we had certain things in common. “Takes his first driving test in England tomorrow—do hope he passes. Marvellous!”30, On his return, Hockney had to face the deadline for his portrait of Sir David Webster. So they drove straight on to the Villa Nellcôte, arriving in the early hours of the morning to find everyone asleep, and making themselves unpopular by eating an entire Paris-Brest pastry that had been intended for the next day’s lunch. I’d rather have this restaurant full of dogs than Australians—as you can see for yourselves, they have better manners.’ ”18. They either look chic, which is nice, or scruffy in a marvellous ‘La Boheme’ way … Of course Peter always loved Paris … Work is progressing slowly on the flat. “When I arrived there,” he recalls, “he was rebuilding Powis Terrace and there were a lot of Irish builders around. Find out Celia __ in the Hockney painting is Mrs Clark Answers. Because they had no script and no agreement with Hockney, it was a question of making it up as they went along, shooting any footage they could get which might possibly be relevant: Ossie Clark’s fashion show at the Royal Court Theatre, a glamorous event at which Twiggy, Amanda Lear and Alice Ormsby-Gore were among the models who sashayed down the catwalk in Manolo Blahnik’s first collection of shoes, Hockney and Celia Birtwell in the front row, with Schlesinger and Boman turning up wearing identical sailor suits; Kasmin in his gallery, pretending to ring Hockney to complain that he had forgotten to turn up to a meeting; and endless shots of Mo McDermott in Powis Terrace. Odin’s became quite a place for artists and their friends … and some of those ate their way through the price of pictures acquired by Peter.”19 In this way Langan procured the services of Hockney and Procktor to design his menus, and Procktor’s watercolours and Hockney’s drawings and prints were soon among the dozens of works of art, hung like postcards, which adorned the walls. He is so kind—in spite of depression went to bed with a thankful heart for his thoughtfulness and generosity—we are certainly blessed in our family, even if we ourselves are difficult.”26, Hockney was also facing a much more significant difficulty: after nearly five years together, his relationship with Schlesinger was beginning to founder. I see the picture every time I reach for a pint of milk, on a magnet stuck to my fridge. “He told me to go, saying, ‘I’m not interested in meeting Paloma. We’d had one very pleasant day when we drove down the Gorge de Tarn …”56. A Bigger Splash is the largest and most striking of three ‘Splash’ paintings; the other two works are held in private collections and were completed in 1966. “We came back through Paris,” wrote Hockney to Ron Kitaj on 2 January. Schlesinger was excited about the new plan; he was beginning to find life in London a little claustrophobic in more senses than one. I thought he might, as this is the first time he could use the bars and night life.” After asking Geldzahler to telephone Schlesinger to give him his love and kisses, he added a PS: “I can’t phone him as his mother may answer.”7, When Hockney returned home from Vichy on 3 September, it was to face some worrying news about his own mother. “It’s too social and there are too many Hoorays.”59 Lancaster, Schlesinger and Boman paid no attention and went down to the harbour, followed by an increasingly agitated Hockney. “Found I was right … no spa waters on sale now. When I said this, he said he would drive me there.”58. Anyway on the drive back to Prague I gave him one of my sermonettes that seemed to put things right in his pretty little mind.” For the final leg of their trip, they took a Russian boat from Bratislava to Belgrade. I’m thrilled with dress and hat … felt like a Duchess.”14 A few days later, on 10 December, her seventieth birthday, he sent her two dozen red roses, as he had on every one of her birthdays since he had left home. Poor dad was like the dog with the bone—but tho the cupboard was full, he got none.”23. He just didn’t want to be with David.”57 Not even a trip to Barcelona to visit the Museum of Modern Art and the Picasso Museum could calm things down. He did look comical. Peter was getting excited by the fact that ‘the Gettys were living just over there!’ ”29 Things improved a little when they made a detour to Madrid on their way home to visit the Prado, David’s first trip to Spain. “I must admit I can’t stand Peter being away much longer. He was struggling to finish Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy, there was the constant noise of the builders next door, and he had compounded his problems by breaking one of his own golden rules, which was not to undertake portrait commissions. There was one significant painting missing from the Whitechapel show, listed in the catalogue as number 70.2, Untitled, “A Portrait of Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, Unfinished.”The proposed wedding portrait as yet only existed in the form of countless photographs and a few drawings. “They posed for a long time, both Ossie and Celia. The hotel’s many associations appealed to David. Schlesinger was almost instantly infatuated with Boman, and the attraction was mutual.
Hockney met George Lawson through Kasmin, who had taken him into the shop, and they immediately hit it off because his camp, rather wicked sense of humour made him laugh. Schlesinger suggested that they should stop the night en route with Tony Richardson at Le Nid de Duc, but when they arrived there unannounced, Richardson, out of loyalty to Hockney, made it quite clear they were not welcome. Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy is as close as he gets to naturalism, in his own estimation. I think he liked the light I provided as well, which was daylight done by using redheads with blue filter paper. When you’re losing somebody you pull out all the stops and I think David was absolutely distraught.”64. As soon as he was settled in the tubular chair that Hockney had chosen for him to sit in, Webster would fall asleep, making it tricky to capture his personality. And the real dimension of this painting is 213.4 cm × 305.1 cm. Langan was a legendary drunk, and lecherous with it.

“All those rooms full of Goyas,” he wrote to Geldzahler, “they’re fabulous; about six rooms in the Prado, beginning with the early works, when he painted pretty pictures of people dancing in sylvan glades, happy pictures, beautifully painted … and finally those marvellous pictures he did in his old age, almost like Bacons. Skip navigation ... Hockney 'Mr and Mrs Clark … If I allowed everybody with some scheme or other to take up my time, I would never get anything done at all.

“He is so anxious to arrange for a holiday and recuperation.”13 A fortnight later, on 14 October, he was back, bringing Celia Birtwell, who was staying with friends nearby, and the following day they all went on a trip to Fountains Abbey, one of Laura’s favourite places. Lemonade is served in precious Lalique glasses. Despite its notably difficult scale, Hockney applied his exceptional artistic skills to the painting. In the days before there were exclusively gay bars in LA, Lambert’s house off La Cienega Boulevard, which had a vast living room on the first floor with great views over the city, became a focal point for the gay community. At a neighbouring table four boisterous Australians objected; their complaints began indirectly, with such remarks as ‘Jesus, now we’ve seen everything,’ and grew to a grumble about not paying the bill in such a filthy, unhygienic restaurant. But though polite and civil about it, Hockney did not like what he had seen. It has many crosswords divided into different worlds and groups.

The paintings are very compelling.


It was standing room the whole way. He said, ‘I’m leaving. As much to his surprise as theirs, he encountered George Lawson and Wayne Sleep there, en route from Barcelona where they had been staying with the Spanish sculptor Xavier Corberó. It’s so pretty and he complements the surroundings so that it seems worse here than the more familiar Powis Terrace.

In each ‘Splash’ painting, Hockney attempted a different result to the constantly changing surface of water, and the absence of humans throughout the series is a prominent intent used by Hockney. A close friend of Patrick Procktor, he encouraged artists to trade art for food, a mutually beneficial arrangement he called “eating it down.” “To find a restaurant close at hand,” wrote Procktor, “which was not only welcoming but extremely good, and, to boot, that bought one’s paintings in exchange for food, was a thrill both for David and for me. Every time I actually gained access to his studio or to him, I had to negotiate specially, which was very wearing on my nerves.” Hazan turned up at the studio and after a very short time, Hockney suddenly said, “Let’s get Peter.” “I had no idea who Peter was. “He said he was going to stay home and work,” Schlesinger remembers. “He was a womanizer,” said the artist Bruer Tidman, who worked at Odin’s in the late sixties. He later admitted to Anthony Bailey that he actually spent longer on the tulips in this picture than he did on Webster. Wayne, David, Peter, Patrick Procktor and me more or less lived there.”22, The morning after their dinner at Odin’s, Ken and Laura went to see Chassay’s renovations at Powis Terrace.