David Hockney b. 1937

Etching and aquatint, 1966, signed in pencil, a very rare proof, this print was never editioned,  printed at Alecto Studios, on wove paper, with full margins, in good condition apart from slight handling creases in upper and left margin, very slight handling marks in outer margins, two adhesive stains in upper corners verso with slight skinning

Hockney began to work on the plates for Illustrations for Thirteen Poems by CP Cavafy on his return from Beirut in early 1966 and drew about 20 line images directly onto copper plates. Rather than literal translations from words to images, Hockney’s illustrations instead encapsulate their nostalgia for transient sexual encounters. Only 13 were finally published to illustrate 14 of Cavafy's poems. The present work is one of a small number of unrecorded proofs which were left out of the final published folio of illustrations.