David Hockney's 10 most famous artworks
The paintings and art pieces that defined the Yorkshire legend, who has died at the age of 88
Tributes are being paid to legendary David Hockney after the British artist died one month short of his 89th birthday.
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It was announced on Friday that he had died in his London home on Thursday, June 11, at the age of 88.
Over the course of more than seven decades, his joyful, optimistic vision made him one of the world’s most popular artists, winning fans from his native Yorkshire to his adopted home in California.
Born in Bradford, Hockney became an icon as much for his image as his art, with his open homosexuality in an era when it was still illegal to be gay, his distinctive blonde hair, flat caps, and love of a cigarette.
“The celebrated British artist David Hockney, one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away peacefully at home on 11 June 2026," his publicist said.
To celebrate his life, here are ten works that defined his career.
David Hockney's ten most famous works
Life Painting for a Diploma (1962)
The 1962 work was painted at the Royal College of Art in London in response to professors saying he could not graduate, in part because he had not done enough life drawings.
He copied a male nude from an American body-building magazine alongside an anatomical study of a human skeleton, and the college was impressed enough to award him a medal for it.
A Bigger Splash (1967)
After moving to the US and taking a job teaching drawing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, he began a relationship with a 17-year-old student, Peter Schlesinger, who also became his muse.
In this period, influenced by the hard, clean lines and vivid colours of American pop artists like Roy Lichtenstein, he produced some of his most famous works.
Using the comparatively new acrylic medium, with strong, vibrant colours, he created a series of striking images of swimming pools – most notably A Bigger Splash.
The 1967 work seemed to encapsulate the allure of California, which he called the “promised land”.
Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy (1971)
Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy depicted his friends, the fashion designers Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark, with their pet cat. It was painted in their Notting Hill Gate flat shortly after their wedding.
A fun fact is that the cat was really called Blanche, but Hockney thought Percy sounded more fitting.
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972)
The pop art piece was defining for Hockney, with the landscape and pool here being a heavy influence on his work from his time in California.
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was sold at auction in New York for 90 million dollars (£70 million) – smashing the then record for a work by a living artist.
Pearblossom Highway (1986)
What is perhaps Hockney's best-known work is a jumbled collage of color photographs of a forlorn intersection in the California desert.
He began experimenting with photo-collage techniques in the 1980s. Pearblossom Highway is made up of 850 Polaroids taken from different angles to create an effect which was compared to cubism.
Garrowby Hill (1998)
In the 1990s, Hockney began returning more regularly to Yorkshire, where he was encouraged by a friend to start capturing the local surroundings.
He did this initially did from memory, completing his painting of Garrowby Hill in 1998.
Despite his years in the States, he insisted he had always felt “very English”.
He said: “I’m from the peasantry, frankly. But it makes you connect with the land and because I found this subject, at my age it’s terrific, you stick with it and get turned on.”
Bigger Trees Near Water (2007)
Hockney eventually returned full-time, setting up home in the seaside resort of Bridlington, while going out to paint the surrounding countryside en plein air using both oils and watercolours.
His works from this time included the massive Bigger Trees Near Warter, an oil painting more than 12 metres wide, made up of 50 panels, which he completed in 2007.
A Bigger Picture series (2012)
In 2012, an exhibition at the Royal Academy focusing on his Yorkshire landscapes, entitled A Bigger Picture, was a smash hit, attracting 600,000 visitors, effectively confirming his status as the country’s best-loved living artist.
It also highlighted his growing use of technology, including iPad drawings and a series of films produced using 18 cameras which were displayed on multiple screens.
Westminster Abbey stained-glass window (2018)
Having once declined the opportunity to paint Queen Elizabeth II, he claimed he was “too busy” painting England – “her country”, he nevertheless found time to design a stained-glass window at Westminster Abbey in tribute to her.
Unveiled in 2018, it marked her love of the countryside with a scene of Hawthorn blossom from his native Yorkshire. “I hope she’ll like it,” he said.
Sunley Window (2026)
A final work was at the Turner Contemporary in Margate, where Hockney decorated the window in the Sunley Room of the gallery.
The Turner Contemporary said: "Depicting a sunrise in Normandy, the window is inspired by works made in 2020, when Hockney was based in the region and created an extraordinary series in response to shifting seasons, weather, and light."
It is still on show until November 1.