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This book illustrates around 40 acrylic on canvas works painted by Hockney at his Normandy studio between 2020 and 2022 – depicting his friends and visitors, including his partner JP, pop-star sensation Harry Styles, and the artist himself.

These works highlight the ongoing importance of portraiture within the artist’s practice and demonstrate his sentiment that ‘drawings and paintings … are a lot better than photographs to give you a sense of the person’. Hockney returned to painting after an intensive period spent depicting the Normandy landscape using an iPad. The portraits were painted quickly and directly onto the canvas without under drawing. As Hockney has said ‘to do a portrait slowly is a bit of a contradiction’.