The star of the painting is none other than the wealthy art collector and author Betty Freeman. The irony of the picture is that it is mocking the people who only see women as housewives, this is evident as the title, Beverly Hills Housewife, does not do enough justice describing this successful icon.
The painting itself in typical Hockney style is minimalist, and it shows Freeman as the Beverly Hills Housewife standing on her patio covered by a long pink gown as she is surrounded by very upper-class products such as a mountain antelope head and of course the zebra print sun bed.
The sunlight is very dim in the picture, so it vaguely allows us to view her private home.
The texture of the painting is very neatly defined which it would have to be to match the very proper subject of the painting. The colours which are used in this picture seem to be rather vibrant as it uses the colours pink, blue, green and a tad dash of rust.
The colours here, however, come across as very sophisticated much like Freeman herself as the bright colours evoke a feeling of grandeur towards the Beverly Hills Housewife as opposed to all of the upper-class items that surround her.
This painting is what is viewed by many as the perfect example of what the upper-class American life stood for and is accepted by many art critics as a 1960s celebration of the what the good life was truly like.
Afer the tragic death of Freman in 2009, this and many other paintings were auctioned off; this painting was sold to an anonymous buyer for a whopping $7.9 million. The amount of money which that picture received shows that this piece of work is the perfect tribute to Freeman the Beverly Hills Housewife, Hockney and of course the life of the American elites of the 1960s.
