The 13 Best David Hockney Paintings of All Time

David Hockney is one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, known for his vibrant California pool paintings, intimate British portraiture, and pioneering digital works. These are the masterpieces that define his extraordinary career.

1

A Bigger Splash

Hockney's iconic 1967 California pool painting capturing the frozen moment of a splash against a serene blue sky, his most reproduced and recognizable image.

1000pts

2

Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy

The 1970-71 double portrait of fashion designer Ossie Clark and his wife Celia Birtwell with their white cat Percy, now housed at Tate Modern and considered a masterpiece of British portraiture.

909pts

3

Garrowby Hill

The 1998 landscape painting of the winding Yorkshire road, its bold greens and yellows marking Hockney's triumphant return to painting English landscapes after decades in California.

778pts

4

Pearblossom Highway

The 1986 photo-collage masterwork assembled from hundreds of individual photographs of a California desert intersection, a defining example of his 'joiner' composite technique.

733pts

5

We Two Boys Together Clinging

The 1961 early painting inspired by Walt Whitman's poetry, a raw, expressionistic work that openly celebrated gay love at a time when it was still illegal in Britain.

681pts

6

The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate

The monumental 2011 work created on an iPad and transferred to large-scale print, capturing the explosive emergence of spring in the East Yorkshire landscape.

619pts

7

Self-Portrait with Red Braces

The 2003 self-portrait depicting Hockney in his studio wearing bold red braces, one of his most celebrated late-career portraits demonstrating his continued mastery of likeness.

619pts

8

The Splash

The 1966 predecessor to A Bigger Splash that first explored Hockney's fascination with representing water, featuring the same serene California pool beneath a warm sky.

545pts

9

Mulholland Drive: The Road to the Studio

The massive 1980 painting of the curving Los Angeles highway, a joyful, kaleidoscopic celebration of the California landscape and the experience of driving through it.

545pts

10

Woldgate Woods

One of his famous East Yorkshire landscape series painted 2006-2007, depicting a wooded lane across the changing seasons with Hockney's signature bold, joyful color palette.

545pts

11

My Parents

The 1977 double portrait of Hockney's parents Kenneth and Laura, a tender yet formal composition reflecting on mortality, love, and the passage of time.

545pts

12

Beverly Hills Housewife

The large-scale 1966-67 acrylic depicting a woman in front of a modernist California home surrounded by manicured garden and pool, capturing the glamour of LA affluence.

545pts

13

Portrait of Nick Wilder

The 1966 portrait of his friend Nick Wilder standing in his Hollywood pool, one of the California swimming pool series that defined Hockney's early reputation.

454pts