When Ed Sheeran met David Hockney

Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories

Flame-haired hitmaker Ed Sheeran has quite a track record when it comes to the visual arts. The pop star, whose father is an art historian, has sat for the painter Colin Davidson (the resulting work hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London) and collects work by artists including Harland Miller. He has even struck up a friendship with Damien Hirst, who was instrumental in the creation of one of his album covers – and apparently designed one of his tattoos.

But Sheeran has hit the big time with his latest arty adventure. He has recently posed for none other than David Hockney, joining the likes of Ossie Clark, Barry Humphries and Norman Rosenthal in the artist’s pantheon of starry sitters. The portrait, now on show at L.A. Louver gallery in Los Angeles, depicts Sheeran reclining in an armchair, and puts significant emphasis on the sitter’s thick-rimmed, Hockney-esque glasses and trademark tattoos. ‘He was my first introduction as a child to art that I really connected to,’ Sheeran has written on Instagram. ‘I can’t quite believe we got to eat pie together and talk about Yorkshire’.

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Me by David Hockney, see it in exhibition at @lalouver

A post shared by Ed Sheeran (@teddysphotos) on Feb 7, 2019 at 10:31am PST