The exhibition, David Hockney: Drawing From Life, will see more than 30 new portraits, painted at the artist's Normandy studio between 2021 and 2022, go on display for the first time from November 2.

The exhibition was previously staged at the gallery but cut short in March 2020 due to the onset of the pandemic. When it returns later this year it will feature some of Hockney's most-recent portraits, seen for the first time, the gallery said.

Without doubt one of the greatest artists Yorkshire has ever produced and arguably the county’s finest living exponent, David Hockney’s journey to worldwide acclaim began in Yorkshire.

David Hockney painting a portrait of Harry Styles which will go on display as part of David Hockney: Drawing from Life, which opens on November 2 at the National Portrait Gallery in London. IPhoto credit should read: JP Goncalves de Lima/David Hockney/PA Wire

One of five siblings, in 1948 he won a scholarship to Bradford Grammar School where he was an often reluctant pupil – “he was very difficult” and “did not want to go” wrote his mother Laura – as even by his early teens he was interested in little else but becoming an artist.

While he has spent the majority of his career based in California, Hockney has never forgotten his Yorkshire roots and the county’s influence on his formative years as an artist.

Between 2005 and 2013 he famously swapped the west coast of the USA for the east coast of England, setting up home in Bridlington from where he painted the landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds.

During this period he would regularly be seen sitting by East Riding roadsides, working on what have become some of his most celebrated paintings, many of which have been displayed in Salts Mill, at Saltaire, as well as Bradford’s Cartwright Hall gallery.

The National Portrait Gallery reopened in June following a three-year, £41.3 million refurbishment.

Harry Styles: Legendary Yorkshire painter David Hockney unveils new portrait of ex-One Direction star