David Hockney (born 1937) is one of the most influential and celebrated artists of our time. Working with a variety of mediums, Hockney is mostly known for his paintings that have built a connection between American and British Pop Art, as well as for his social and artistic rebelliousness, and his explorations into the possibilities of painting using new technological devices. ‘Love life’ is a motto of Hockney’s that defines his attitude.

Portraits of friends is a characteristic type of work recurring in his oeuvre. The double portrait Anthony Page and Ken Butler painted in 2002 with watercolors on four sheets of paper, presents two figures sitting causally on modern chairs—they are film director Anthony Page and producer and actor Ken Butler. Making eye contact with the artist or viewer is Butler, while Page looks beyond him. Hockney gives his attention to their clothes, postures, and faces, painting, as it were, each separate character and capturing a private moment between friends.