Hockney launches Mouton label in London

David Hockney’s design for Mouton Rothschild 2014 was launched at Spencer House in London on Friday at an event hosted by the artist along with Lord Rothschild.

Pictured left to right at Spencer House in London: Jean-Pierre de Beaumarchais, Lord Rothschild, Camille Sereys de Rothschild, David Hockney, Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild. Photo credit: Stuart Bebb

The English painter, who will open his major retrospective at Tate Britain on Thursday this week, has drawn the label as a tribute to the late Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, who he admired and liked greatly (see design below).

At the evening event, Lord Rothschild, Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild and David Hockney together unveiled the display case containing the original artwork for the label of Château Mouton Rothschild 2014.

Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, who is co-owner of Château Mouton Rothschild, has the responsibility of choosing the artist for each vintage of the first growth following the death of his mother in August 2014 aged 80.

Speaking at the unveiling, he said, “The story begins in 1945, when my grandfather, Philippe de Rothschild, asked the greatest artists of the day to create a design to grace the label of Mouton, his wine, which he also considered to be a work of art.”

Continuing he said, “An artwork implies an original, and his daughter Philippine, my mother, had another idea of genius: that of showing the whole world the original works by Miró, Chagall, Picasso, Francis Bacon and so many others, hitherto seen only as reproductions on the label of the vintage they had been asked to illustrate.

Concluding, he remarked, “Now it is for my brother Philippe, my sister Camille and myself to continue that marvellous adventure, that urgent and impassioned quest.”

As reported by the drinks business in November last year, Hockney is the latest in a long line of artists to create an original work for the château, which has commissioned avant-garde artists to design its labels since 1945.

Among others to have created a label for Mouton Rothschild are Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Georges Braque, Juan Miró, Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Jeff Koons and Lucian Freud.

Designer of the label for the 2013 vintage of Mouton Rothschild was South Korean painter Lee Ufan. The label features a simple square that begins a pinkish purple and deepens in colour from left to right to a rich ruby red (pictured, bottom).

Explaining the symbolism of the image in a statement released in October 2015, the château said: “The initially indecisive purple of the drawing gradually attains its full richness, just as a great wine is patiently brought to fulfilment in the vat house.”

When db asked Philippe Sereys de Rothschild at the evening event last Friday whether his family ever rejected designs for the Mouton label, he replied, “Often”, before recalling fondly that his grandfather used to politely make suggestions to the artist on how they might change the proposed design, at which point they would leave the room.

The artists are not paid for their work, but given 10 cases of the first growth wine, half of which come from the vintage they have created the label for.

The last label to be released by Mouton Rothschild featured a design by South Korean painter Lee Ufan