DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)

It was a charming habit of David Hockney’s to present friends who were ill in hospital with paintings of flowers. The present photo-edition, showing a vase of sunflowers and a painting thereof with a dedication ‘Sunflowers for Jonathan’ was made for Hockney’s close friend Jonathan Silver after he had been diagnosed with cancer in 1995. The two first met in 1963 after Silver, who was then at Bradford Grammar school and Hockney was at the Royal College of Art, wrote to Hockney asking if he would design he cover for a school magazine. Silver later founded the 1853 Gallery at Salt’s Mill in West Yorkshire, dedicated to Hockney, which remains the largest collection of the artist’s works in the world.