We are always interested in domestic interiors, and all of Hockney's houses, flats, and rooms are fascinating. The architecture of his home in Los Angeles was influenced by his art, love of colour, and interest in perspective, which in turn transformed the  house into a subject for his painting. This is the model created by the architects after Hockney asked, “Couldn’t we have a few more mad angles?”.

Like so many others, this week we are celebrating the life and work of David Hockney (1937-2026) who died last Thursday. We begin with an appreciation of his marvellous personal dress style. From the time he wore a gold lamé jacket to receive his Gold Medal at the Royal College of Art in 1962, to the later years of boldly checked suits, bright knitwear, striped shirts and ties, and colourful shoes, he was, like his art, beautifully put together. 

We end the week of open windows - despite the wet weather here - with contemporary artist, Alice Mumford whose gentle, luminous paintings concentrate on light and colour. She often paints domestic interiors with open windows looking out onto gardens and seascapes in Cornwall; this is Anemones in the Window, Portscatho.

This is Open Window at Saint-Jeannet (c1926-27, Tate) by Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) who painted some of the most sparkling, cheerful, and colourful scenes framed by an open window. It has been said that “Dufy never painted a sad picture", and this article argues that the fashionable, decorative, and illustrative nature of much of his work has meant that, unfortunately, his output has been less highly valued critically than the works of artists who have addressed a wider range of social concerns.

Vanessa Bell often painted open windows and doors with views from inside the domestic interior of places such as London, Venice, Sussex, and Provence. At Charleston Farmhouse where, despite the experimentation and expressive decor, daily life was actually rather ascetic and under-heated, the boundaries between the interior and the garden were often blurred, especially during the  summer months (even then it was rarely warm inside). View into a Garden (1926, Bolton Museum and Art Gallery).

This week we celebrate the simple joy of an open window in early summer, letting in light, breezes, scents, sounds that are often otherwise absent in cooler or cold weather when windows are firmly shut. David Jones (1895-1974), painter and modernist poet, is now largely forgotten but his war poem 'Parenthesis' is considered a masterpiece of WWI literature. He was an accomplished watercolourist and painted interior views through an open window on various occasions. This is his joyous, wispy, delicate Flora in Calix Light (1950, Kettle's Yard) which evokes the freshness of a summer's day.