David Hockney Pretty Tulips For Sale

About this work

David Hockney stands among the most influential artists of the past century, his contributions to British Pop Art and contemporary painting securing his position as one of the highest-selling living artists at auction. His work continues to command extraordinary prices on the secondary market, reflecting sustained institutional and collector demand across decades. Pretty Tulips, executed in 1970, emerges from a particularly fertile period in Hockney's printmaking practice. The early 1970s saw the artist deeply engaged with lithography, exploring the medium's capacity for bold color and fluid line work. This large-scale color lithograph on handmade Crisbrook paper demonstrates his characteristic approach to still life—a genre he would revisit throughout his career with increasing complexity. The tulips, rendered with apparent simplicity, reveal Hockney's sophisticated understanding of form and his ability to imbue everyday subjects with psychological presence. At over six feet in height, the work commands significant physical space, a scale that distinguishes it from many of his other prints from this era. The edition of 200, while not scarce by contemporary standards, has been absorbed into collections over more than five decades, making fresh-to-market examples increasingly difficult to source. Hockney's prints from this period have proven remarkably resilient in the secondary market, with strong examples regularly exceeding estimates at major auction houses. This lithograph represents an opportunity to acquire work by an artist whose historical importance is firmly established and whose market trajectory remains robust. For acquisition inquiries, please contact Guy Hepner.