The auction house starts this 2020 with a David Hockney's painting...

Sotheby's London will soon inaugurate the year with one of the most iconic images of David Hockney (Bradford, 1937). Estimated between £20 million and £30 million ($26.1 million–$39.2 million) and presented for the evening sale of on 11 February 2020, "The Splash" (1966) is part of the swimming pools' series of which the best-known artwork is "A Bigger Splash" (1967) currently conserved at the Tate Modern: a key image to understand the artist's production during the 60s.

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As already mentioned, Splash is part of a series of three similar paintings: the largest is "A Bigger Splash" visible inside the Tate Modern collection, which is similar to the one on sale for composition and size. A third painting, "A Little Splash" (1966), remains in a private collection and it's never been sold publicly. In the past, Splash set an important record for Hockney when it was sold for £ 2.9 million at Sotheby's London in 2006.

Read more about: The History of Art Auction: Three things you didn't know. Since then, several artworks of Hockney were sold for significantly higher prices. This growth path peaked at the end of 2018, with the sale of Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) for $ 90.3 million at Christie's in New York. A sale that has set the world record for a living artist.

Cover image: David Hockney, The Splash, 1966, work detail. Courtesy Sotheby’s. 

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