When David Hockney died ten days ago he was eulogised around the world as the greatest British artist of the last century. Adored for his portraits of sunny Californian swimming pools and colourful landscapes depicting his beloved Yorkshire countryside, the 88-year-old artist remained creative to the end, captivating younger generations with creations made on his iPad.
But while his paintings were often bathed in sunlight, The Mail on Sunday has learned that his death has been shrouded in something far gloomier. For some of Hockney’s closest friends say they were kept from visiting him in his final weeks – even turned away from his door – leaving the artist ‘isolated’ as he lay bedridden after suffering a series of strokes.
One said: ‘I’ve been on the phone non-stop since David died. So many of his friends feel deeply saddened that they were unable to see him during his final days. We are haunted by the idea that this man, whose art was adored around the world, might not have known how much his friends truly loved him.’
The focus of their indignation is Hockney’s bereaved partner of ten years Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, known as ‘JP’. He was originally hired by the artist as his household assistant and now stands to inherit the lion’s share of Hockney’s personal fortune, which runs into the hundreds of millions, and a property empire of at least four homes in London, a ranch house in the Hollywood Hills, a seafront home and studio in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, and a 17th century farmhouse in Normandy, France.
The MoS understands the funeral was arranged by 61-year-old JP and was attended only by himself and Hockney’s great-nephew Richard.
‘This is not what David would have wanted,’ says the friend. ‘He would have been so upset that his friends were frozen out, particularly Celia Birtwell.’
Fashion designer Celia was Hockney’s muse, who sat for him more than 80 times over their five-decade friendship, yet even she was not invited to the funeral.
However, there are plans to celebrate his life next year with memorial services in Westminster Abbey, Yorkshire, Los Angeles and Paris.
David Hockney, who died aged 88, posing in front of his artwork ‘The Chairs’
Fashion designer Celia Birtwell was Hockney’s muse, who sat for him more than 80 times over their five-decade friendship, yet even she was not invited to the funeral
The friend said: ‘Whether it is fair or not, a lot of people are blaming JP for isolating David. Friends would turn up with flowers to see him and were told they could not go into the house. It felt like we were being alienated from David at a time when we most wanted to see him, to hold his hand and tell him how much he meant to us all.
‘David loved the company of his friends so it feels heartbreaking that people were turning up to see him only to be turned away.
‘It’s hard for some of us, who have known David for decades, to properly mourn his death without having the closure of saying a proper goodbye.’
Few details have emerged about Hockney’s death on June 11 at his Marylebone home – only that he’d passed away ‘peacefully’.
Little, too, is known of his private art collection, about which Hockney was very secretive. But the MoS can reveal it contains works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse, and could be worth ‘upwards of £100 million’.
The friend of the artist says: ‘David left behind a huge collection of his own works but he spent a lifetime secretly collecting art by artists he admired. He has an astonishing collection, better than many museums.
‘He would get all the catalogues from the major auction houses around the world and he pieced together the most remarkable collection. It’s breathtaking. If you asked me to put a price on it, I would say upwards of £100 million. Probably a lot more.’
Hockney told only his closest circle about the collection, which he stored at a climate-controlled warehouse in LA – the city that the boy from Bridlington had come to regard as his second home.
Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for $90.3million (£68million) at auction in 2018
David and Andy Warhol pictured together. Hockney is said to have owned multiple Warhols
An LA-based friend of the artist was allowed to view the collection, housed off Santa Monica Boulevard, several years ago. ‘The storage facility was immaculate. From the street you could never tell that behind those walls was one of the most important art collections in the world,’ they said.
‘David had masses of his own art in there but also this amazing collection by other artists that no one knows about. He had several Picassos, works by Matisse and a ton of Andy Warhols.’
Yet their existence is disputed by Erica Bolton, Hockney’s longtime spokesman, who told the MoS: ‘David did not have a collection of works by other artists, and none of his works are stored in any of David’s properties in the UK, France and the US.’
Leaving aside the mystery surrounding his collection, the principal owner of the artist’s works is his personal charity The David Hockney Foundation. Its most recent available tax records in America are from 2024 and value the foundation at $225 million (£170 million). Another acquaintance said: ‘That’s probably not even the half of it. David left a will but he was working on who would get what right up until the last few months of his life. He had a stroke in 2012 but he carried on working.
‘He worked pretty much to the end. If he wasn’t creating art he was talking about it. He was determined to leave a legacy.’
Hockney told friends he intended to donate the haul to museums that helped his career. The MoS understands two of the biggest beneficiaries will be the Tate galleries in the UK, including Tate Modern and Tate Britain, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The acquaintance says: ‘He wanted to give back to Britain, which he loved, and to Los Angeles where he spent many happy years.’
And it appears that, as a ‘typical frugal Yorkshireman’, he spent little on anything else.
‘He didn’t spend his money on fancy clothes or private jets,’ the source says. ‘He ate fish pie and loved those individual pots of jelly from Marks & Spencer. He loved art to his core and that’s what he spent his money on.’
He obtained some of his Warhols by trading his own works with the American pop artist, reveals Robert Dupont, a close friend of Warhol. He told the MoS: ‘I met David through Andy in 1979. David had a charming accent and was fun to be around. Andy and David had already traded portraits – they painted each other in 1974 – but I know David had many Warhols.’
Few of Hockney’s purchases, though, would have matched the huge prices his own artwork commanded. His Portrait Of An Artist (Pool With Two Figures) sold at Christie’s in New York in 2018 for $90.3 million (£68.2 million), a then record for a living artist. Since his death, interest in his work has sky-rocketed. One of his paintings sold at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland last week for $8.5 million (£6.4 million), and an iPad sketch for $650,000 (£491,000). No wonder its artistic director Vincenzo de Bellis described the mood there as ‘very buzzy’.
So precious is Hockney’s collection that during last year’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires, the artist told friends he was considering moving it into storage in Chicago.
A friend says: ‘I once asked David why he didn’t sell more of his work and he said he made a fortune from the sale of prints online and in museum gift shops so he didn’t really need to.’
That fortune will be the subject of much intrigue when his will is made public in the weeks to come. How his wealth is divided up remains to be seen, but JP is likely to receive the most.
When Hockney hired him as his household assistant, the artist was in a relationship with chef John Fitzherbert, his lover of 23 years.
One of the darkest moments of Hockney’s life came in March 2013 when his 23-year-old studio assistant Dominic Elliott died at Hockney’s Bridlington home after ingesting drain cleaner. An inquest heard Elliott drank the liquid after ‘partying’ with Fitzherbert while Hockney was fast asleep upstairs.
JP testified at the inquest saying he received a call from Fitzherbert after Elliott’s death asking him to clear the room of ‘any evidence of drug use’.
He said he did so but later told police what he had done.
The coroner ruled there were no suspicious circumstances or third-party involvement, and recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.
A close friend of Fitzherbert’s says: ‘John went into rehab after that, and JP and David left for Los Angeles. Everyone was devastated. David and John split up and then David and JP got together and have been together ever since. Sadly John died a few years ago.’
Hockney’s sexuality was no secret after he gutsily came out as gay in 1960 while studying at London’s Royal College of Art, seven years before homosexuality was decriminalised in Britain.
After moving to LA in 1964, he was one of the first artists to openly portray gay life in some of his most famous paintings.
Warhol’s friend Dupont recounts that he was only 18 when he met Hockney.
He says: ‘He liked me. He came on to me. I’d never heard of him and wasn’t really interested.’
In 1989, Dupont reconnected with the artist through a mutual friend, art collector Joan Quinn, and started regularly hanging out at Hockney’s home in Malibu.
Hockney eventually relocated to his house in Nichols Canyon, close to LA’s famous Mulholland Drive. The artist originally purchased the property for just $118,000 in 1978 and transformed the ranch-style home into a vibrant estate.
Fitzherbert’s friend says: ‘David painted the walls with bright colours and the bottom of the swimming pool with blue swirls. It’s a work of art.
‘The house is probably worth a couple of million now but the Hockney-painted swimming pool is surely worth just as much.’
He adds: ‘Despite the sadness many of his friends are feeling, he had a wonderful life and was celebrated by generations around the world.
‘People want to put a figure on what he’s worth – and that figure must be in the hundreds of millions. But to his friends David was, and always will remain, priceless.’
