Australian artist Robert 'Bob' Marchant first met Hockney in the mid-’60s in London, introduced to each other through Peter Langan. The present photograph relates to a spectacular banquet Peter Langan arranged at Glyndebourne in 1975 in honour of Hockney's design for the costumes and set for Igor Stravinsky's 'The Rake's Progress' performed at the Glyndebourne Festival that year. Marchant was invited by Langan to be the official photographer for the event, with all other photographers prohibited from shooting.

On the front lawn at Glyndebourne a long table was set up with a white linen tablecloth, candelabra and cut flowers with Cuban waiters serving champagne. Hockney recalled, "The picnic was supposed to be for about thirty people, but Peter took 120 bottles of champagne and none went back. I did point out to him, 'That's four bottles each, Peter!' The food was fantastic, enormous lobsters, best hams, marvelous smoked salmon - he knew where to get the good stuff. It was spectacular." (C.S. Sykes, David Hockney, A Rake's Progress, The Biography, 1937-1975, New York 2011, p. 325-326).