Red palm

Howard Hodgkin is regarded as one of the greatest colourists of his generation. His paintings, with their wild splashes of colour and gestural broad brushstrokes, appear spontaneous but they could take years for him to complete as each brushstroke was meticulously considered and applied. His prints followed the same rigorous planning and are the result of complex printing processes, extensive layering and hand colouring.

Hodgkin works convey memories and emotions. His overseas travels were a great source of inspiration, particularly India, where he visited for the first time in 1964, returning almost every year thereafter, often for long periods of time. Palm trees were a recurring subject and featured prominently in his work, debuting in the painting ‘Indian subject (blue)’ 1965–69, which was also his first landscape.

In ‘Red palm’ 1986–87, Hodgkin has circled the blood-red palm fronds with rows of green trunk rings. This halo of greenery creates depth, lifting the fronds to the foreground above the vibrant blue water behind. ‘Red palm’ was printed from the same set of aluminium plates as ‘Black palm’ 1986–87, and both lithographs were created using tusche washes with pochoir hand-colouring.