What Van Gogh's presence gives us that the extravagant retrospectives did not, is the vital role the 19th century painter played in the evolution of Hockney's late-career subjects and style. Hockney marveled at how Van Gogh saw nature and revealed the way his paintings were made.

In 1966, Hockney gave drawing classes at the University of California in Los Angeles. It was there that he met Peter Schlesinger, a student 11 years his junior. Schlesinger would become not just his lover but one of his greatest muses (inspiring work such as the swimming-pool painting, Peter Getting Out of Nick’s Pool).