Sharjah24 – AFP: David Hockney's 1969 painting "Early Morning, Sainte-Maxime", inspired by a French Riviera sunrise, sold for over £24 million ($27.3 million) at a London sale Thursday -- more then double the pre-sale estimate.
The piece dates from a transitional phase in the British artist's early career, between his seminal, highly stylised Californian swimming pool paintings and the "naturalism" that came to define his later work.
The work showcases his increasing fascination with light, capturing "glass-like waters bathed in the sparkling light of a new day", said auction house Christie's.
"It is a work of rare, near-cinematic beauty that -- in both subject and style -- ushers in a thrilling new dawn."
The work was created at the height of Hockney's romance with Peter Schlesinger, representing a time of "personal contentment and professional triumph", said the auction house.
It was included in Hockney's first retrospective in London in 1970, and was unseen in public for over three decades.
The work belongs to a group of four paintings based on photographs that Hockney, now aged 85, took during his 1968 European trip with Schlesinger, having recently returned from four years living in California, where he had met his partner.
"Notably, the imagery would ultimately come full circle: it was with a poignant sunset that Hockney ultimately bade farewell to his lover in the deeply emotive 1971 painting 'Sur la Terrasse'," said Christie's.
Thursday's winning bid came in at £20,899,500, which works out at £24,219,427 once the buyer's premium is included.
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