Art's naked truth: Hockney inspires a return to life drawing classes

David Hockney draws better than anyone else alive today. There may be other fine painters but on paper with charcoal, ink pen or even crayons in hand, he is incomparable

- Jonathan Jones

So of course his retrospective of portraits on paper opening next week at the National Portrait Gallery is called Drawing from Life.

Hockney has always had a deceptively simple and captivating ability to look at his own face in the mirror, or at his "muse" Celia Birtwell, and set down what he sees, in clear confident lines that vibrate with vitality.

Hockney's eyeballful of a show, which had a brief three-week run in early 2020 before it was closed by the pandemic, reopens at a time when drawing from life is becoming ever more popular. And not just any drawing from life, but particularly life drawing, that of the human figure.

The events site Eventbrite lists nearly 500 life drawing classes in the next few weeks alone, from Brixton to Exmouth, outstripping all other subjects such as landscapes or still lifes.

Nudes have long featured in Hockney's oeuvre, especially in the 1960s when he sketched friends and lovers lying in relaxed Californian languor.

In London, life classes currently on offer range from Full Bodied, where you sample wines as you sketch - a few glasses and you'll think you are Picasso-to Neon Naked life drawing classes, where models are "adorned with UV paints and accessories".