''Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy'' is a painting by the British artist

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

. Painted between 1970 and 1971, it depicts the fashion designer

Ossie Clark Raymond "Ossie" Clark (9 June 1942 – 6 August 1996) was a British fashion designer who was a major figure in the Swinging Sixties scene in London and the fashion industry in that era. Clark is now renowned for his vintage designs by present- ...

and the textile designer

Celia Birtwell Celia Birtwell, CBE (born 1941), is a British textile designer and fashion designer, known for her distinctive bold, romantic and feminine designs, which are influenced by Picasso and Matisse, and the classical world. She was well known for her ...

in their flat in

Notting Hill Gate Notting Hill Gate is one of the main thoroughfares of Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically the street was a location for toll gates, from which it derives its modern name. Location At Ossington Street/Ke ...

shortly after their wedding, with one of the couple's cats on Clark's knee. The white cat depicted in the painting was Blanche; Percy was another of their cats, but Hockney thought "Percy" made a better title.

Background

The work is part of a series of double portraits made by Hockney from 1968, often portraying his friends. Hockney and Clark had been friends since meeting in Manchester in 1961, and Hockney was Clark's

best man A groomsman or usher is one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony and performs the first speech at the wedding. Usually, the groom selects close friends and relatives to serve as groomsmen, and it is considered an honor to be ...

at his wedding to Birtwell in 1969. Hockney did preparatory work for the painting from 1969, making drawings and taking photographs. He worked on the painting from early 1970 to early 1971.

Description

The couple are depicted in the bedroom of their flat in

, near life size, either side of a tall window with a pair of shutters, one open to reveal the balustrade of a balcony looking out over trees to a Georgian façade beyond. To the left, Birtwell stands in a purple dress with hand on hip; to the right sits Clark in green jumper and trousers, lounging on a modern metal-framed chair with his bare feet in the thick pile of a rug and a cigarette in his left hand, and with a white cat on his lap. Both Birtwell and Clark are looking out at the viewer, drawing them as a third person into the composition. The cat rebels by ignoring the viewer, looking out of the window instead. The room is relatively bare and uncluttered, in simple 1960s

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post– World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Do ...

style, with a telephone and a lamp on the floor to the right of Clark, and a plain table to the left of Birtwell bearing a vase of lilies and a yellow book. There is a framed print on the wall behind her. Hockney worked and reworked the portraits many times until he was satisfied, repainting Clark's head perhaps twelve times. He has described the style of the painting as being close to naturalism, although the surfaces are characteristically abstracted and flattened. Hockney achieves the difficult task of balancing the dark figures "

contre-jour Contre-jour (French for "against daylight") is a photographic technique in which the camera is pointing directly toward a source of light and an equivalent technique of painting. Description Before its use in photography, contre-jour was use ...

", against the light flooding in through the window behind them. The work is in acrylic on canvas, and measures (or in its frame). The painting was presented to the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

by the friends of the gallery in 1971, and remains in the Tate collection. It featured in the final ten of the

Greatest Painting in Britain Vote The Greatest Painting in Britain Vote was a survey made by BBC Radio 4's ''Today'' programme in Summer 2005 with the aim of discovering the best-loved painting in Britain, in the manner of 100 Greatest Britons and The Big Read The Big Read was a ...

in 2005, the only work by a living artist to do so.

Symbolism

Hockney drew on both the '' Arnolfini Portrait'' by Jan van Eyck and ''

A Rake's Progress ''A Rake's Progress'' (or ''The Rake's Progress'') is a series of eight paintings by 18th-century English artist William Hogarth. The canvases were produced in 1732–1734, then engraved in 1734 and published in print form in 1735. The series ...

'' by

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like ...

in the symbolism and composition of the painting. A copy of a Hockney etching, showing his own interpretation of ''A Rake's Progress'' (1961–63), is on the wall behind Birtwell. The positions of the two figures are reversed from the ''Arnolfini Portrait'', with the implication that Birtwell is the assertive partner. Hockney's portrait, with the bride standing and the groom sitting, also reverses the convention of traditional wedding portraiture, such as '' Mr and Mrs Andrews'' by

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

. The lilies next to Birtwell, a symbol of female purity, are also associated with depictions of the Annunciation (at the time of the portrait Birtwell was pregnant). The cat "Percy" (slang for penis) sits erect on Clark's crotch. The cat is a symbol of infidelity and envy, echoing the dog (a symbol of fidelity) in the ''Arnolfini Portrait''. In this case, Clark continued to have affairs with men and women, which contributed to the breakdown of the marriage in 1974: Hockney's depiction of the couple together but separated foreshadows their divorce. The informal interior scene littered with symbolic objects echoes Victorian paintings, such as

William Holman Hunt William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolis ...

's ''

The Awakening Conscience ''The Awakening Conscience'' (1853) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the English artist William Holman Hunt, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which depicts a woman rising from her position in the lap of a man and gazing trans ...

''.

References

Tate Online
Accessed 21 June 2006.
''Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy''
''ArtUK''
Hockney makes greatest painting shortlist, with the wrong cat
''The Guardian'', 19 August 2005

''The Independent'', 16 October 2009
''Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy'' by David Hockney

''David Hockney''
by David Hockney; p.79-81 {{David Hockney Paintings by David Hockney 1971 paintings Cats in art 20th-century portraits Collection of the Tate galleries