David Hockney's $90.3M 'Portrait of an Artist' Breaks Record

David Hockney's 'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)' sold for $90.3 million at Christie's New York in November 2018, becoming the most expensive artwork by a living artist at auction. The painting depicts his ex-lover Peter Schlesinger observing a swimmer, possibly Schlesinger's new partner Eric Boman. Hockney created the work after a breakup, using double portraiture and swimming pool motifs central to his 1960s-70s practice. He photographed the scene in Le-Nid-du-Duc, France, and reassembled images in London. The 2.1m x 3.0m canvas features a saturated palette and cool eeriness. Art historians interpret the pool as a metaphor for the artist's presence and the scene as a bittersweet commentary on lost love. Schlesinger, however, denies the painting's emotional content, calling it a conceptual problem. Hockney's process is documented in the film 'A Bigger Splash' (1973).