David Hockney - La Grande Cour Normandy

In 2019, following his opening at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Hockney began working at La Grande Cour. He first saw the property on a trip to France after the unveiling of his stained-glass window at Westminster Abbey in London. Almost immediately, this new environment in Normandy inspired him to start this series of drawings. Through the use of playful and colourful marks, each drawing captures the vibrancy of Normandy's landscape during the arrival of spring and reveals Hockney's personal connection to the land. A large, twenty-four-panel panoramic drawing, La Grande Cour portrays in great detail its subject: the full grounds of the property, with its multiple buildings and landscaped with cherry, pear and apple trees, hawthorne thickets and elderflower patches. Four individual drawings, depicting each side of the 17th century house and named after the view they display: north, south, east, west, are also featured in the exhibition.