Footnotes

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being compiled by The Estate of Howard Hodgkin.

Provenance
Private Collection, UK 
Private Collection (acquired from the above circa 1995); their sale, Bonhams, London, 22 October 2022, lot 7
Acquired from the above by the present owner



For Edward belongs to that rare group of paintings that capture an artist at his zenith—balancing scale, composition, and colour with remarkable finesse. With works in major museums worldwide, including MoMA in New York, the Museu de Arte Contemporanea in São Paulo, and the Centro de Arte Moderna in Lisbon, this is an exceptional opportunity to acquire a painting of outstanding quality and unique provenance by one of the most celebrated post-war painters.

Howard Hodgkin's transcendent style is immediately felt in his paintings, their orchestral sweep and dappled brushwork achieving a rare harmony. Few are as precisely composed as For Edward, painted in 1984, the year he exhibited at the British Pavilion in the Venice Biennale before winning the Turner Prize in 1985.

Hodgkin's hypnotic brushwork is exquisitely displayed here, the painting a compelling and succinct example of his expressive power. Emerging from the Bath Academy of Art in 1954 under William Scott, Hodgkin quickly became an influence in his own right. Early inspiration came from the 1959 Tate exhibition The New American Painting, yet unlike the flatness of American Modernism, Hodgkin pushed painting beyond the frame, creating abstract depths that open onto vivid, immersive landscapes.

As his close friend Julian Barnes wrote: "H.H.'s paintings are not narratives. Mostly, they are memories... emotion recollected in intensity. In that sense his pictures are operatic" (Keeping an Eye Open, 2015). Produced in a pivotal year, For Edward exemplifies the period Hodgkin entered in the mid-1980s. Despite their apparent spontaneity, his paintings were often years in the making. Here, the refined brushwork and chromatic interplay of green and orange are a delight at this intimate scale, reflecting Hodgkin's lifelong admiration for Indian art and culture.