In the David Hockney painting 'Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy', who or what is Percy?

'Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy' (1971) by the British artist David Hockney depicts the fashion designer Ossie Clark and the textile designer Celia Birtwell in their flat in Notting Hill Gate, London. On Clark's knee sits one of the couple's white cats. The cat depicted in the painting was actually called Blanche, but Hockney thought the name of their other cat, Percy, made a better title.

The painting is part of a series of double portraits of Hockney's friends, which he produced from the late 1960s onwards. Hockney was Clark's best man at his wedding to Birtwell in 1969, the year before Hockney started working on the painting.

Hockney has described the style of the painting as being close to naturalism, although the surfaces are characteristically abstract and flat. Hockney also says he was inspired by the 'Arnolfini Portrait' (1434) by Jan van Eyck, although the positions of the two figures are reversed, implying that Birtwell is the more assertive partner.

The painting was presented to the Tate Gallery in 1971 and remains in the Tate collection. It featured in the final ten of the Greatest Painting in Britain Vote in 2005, the only work by a living artist to do so.