After his breakup with Peter Schlesinger in the summer of 1971, Hockney traveled to Japan with his friend Mark Lancaster. Made in London after his return and assuming multiple painterly manners, this work references the delicate, dripping washes of color-field painting in the treatment of Mount Fuji, while the white jonquils in the foreground are rendered in a hard-edged style. The image itself is also a composite: Hockney worked from a postcard of Mount Fuji and a flower-arrangement manual, rather than direct observation— perhaps an ironic response to the commercial culture he found in Japan, which contradicted his expectations of an unspoiled and bucolic landscape.
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. "David Hockney," June 19–October 23, 2017, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "David Hockney," November 20, 2017–February 25, 2018, unnumbered cat.
Henry Geldzahler in "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965–1975. New York, 1975, p. 219, ill.
Lowery S. Sims in "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1979–1980. New York, 1980, p. 63.
Henry Geldzahler. "Hockney Abroad: A Slide Show." Art in America 69 (February 1981), p. 137, ill.
Kathleen Howard, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 1983, p. 424, no. 30, ill. (color).
Lowery S. Sims in20th Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vol. 2, Painting: 1945–1985. New York, 1986, pp. 48–49, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, p. 156, colorpl. 135.
Theodore F. Wolff. "Metropolitan Museum of Art: Big Lift from a New Wing." Christian Science Monitor (February 2, 1987), p. 25.
Marco Livingstone. David Hockney. Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Madrid, 1992, pp. 18, 105, no. 18, ill. p. 53 (color).
Alan Woods. "Painting with Banging Doors: Art and Allusion in Kitaj and Hockney." Cambridge Quarterly 24, no. 4 (1995), p. 329.
Didier Ottinger inDavid Hockney: Espace/Paysage. Exh. cat., Galerie Sud, Centre George Pompidou. Paris, 1999, pp. 98–99, ill. (color).
Laurie Attias. "David Hockney. Pompidou Center, Paris." Art News 98 (June 1999), p. 136.
Gilbert Lascaux. "David Hockney: Mountains and Byways." Cimaise 46 (March/April 1999), pp. 42–48.
David Hockney: Maleri 1960-2000. Exh. cat., Humlebaek Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. 2001, ill. p. 39 (color).
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 533, ill. (color), colorpl. 488.
Helen Little inDavid Hockney. Ed. Chris Stephens and Andrew Wilson. Exh. cat., Tate Britain. London, 2017, pp. 82–83, 268, ill. p. 90 (color).
Ian Alteveer inDavid Hockney. Ed. Chris Stephens and Andrew Wilson. Exh. cat., Tate Britain. London, 2017, p. 225.
Anne Gallou. "Hockney: A French Point of View." British Art Journal 17 (Spring 2017), p. 112.
Hannah De Corte. "Selective Preparation of Canvas as an 'Artistic Device' in David Hockney's Early Paintings (1964–1972)." Art & Perception 8, no. 3 (2020), pp. 311–36.
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