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Hockney muse Celia Birtwell: 'Nobody else has ever asked to draw me'

The textile designer is the artist’s most famous muse, posing for him since the 1960s in paintings that have become iconic. Ahead of a major Hockney show, she talks about the joy and sadness behind their creation

The first time textile designer Celia Birtwell modelled for David Hockney, she was, she says, terrified. “Look, that’s a very nervous me,” she says, pointing to a 1969 ink drawing titled, simply, Celia in Paris. “We were in an apartment in Paris – I think it belonged to Tony Richardson. It was so tranquil but I was terrified of doing something wrong.”

Given this was to be the first of hundreds of portraits he made of her, she obviously did something right.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/37TOj52

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