In Normandy, in the intimacy of David Hockney, the world’s most expensive artist

Pays d’Auge Special Correspondent

To enter David Hockney’s home is to step into the heart of one of his paintings. The half-timbered house in the Pays d’Auge is smaller than you’d imagine from all angles of ‘David Hockney’. A Year in Normandy’, his Bayeux Tapestry painted on an iPad, is on display at the Orangerie Museum from October 2021 to February 2022. The garden lawn is immaculate, as would any self-respecting Englishman. Apart from the beauty of the place and the historical description of the settlement, there is nothing ostentatious, or even luxurious, about this rural setting, without a pool or excess, where the landscape is king. The house is like a fairy tale, isolated and full of signs, sketches, messages, photos left by the artist, whom it envelops like the main character. Under the beams, the walls are pure blue, which sets the sky well and which signs his exhibitions, invitations, books made in cascade by his friend Benedikt Taschen. It…