Hockney's Portrait of His Dachshund to Come Under the Hammer for the First Time

Hockney died in June 2026 at the age of 88. In 2018 his painting "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" sold at Christie's in New York for $90.3 million, and Hockney was then considered the most expensive living artist.

In the painting Hockney depicted his first dachshund, called Stanley, sound asleep and curled up on a cushion. Experts have valued the work at between £1.5 million and £2.5 million. Hockney painted "Dog 17" in 1995 as part of his "Dog Days" series, for which he created more than 40 works in 1994 and 1995. This painting is the first work from the series to be offered at auction.

By some estimates, only six works from the series are in private hands, while the rest belong to the David Hockney Foundation.

Hockney chose Stanley as a puppy in 1987 and named him after the American comedian Stan Laurel. Stan Laurel became famous in the 1920s and 1930s as half of a comic duo with Oliver Hardy, known in Russian distribution as "Fat and Thin" (Tolstyi i Tonkii). Before long the artist acquired a second dachshund, called Boodgie. Hockney's official biographer Christopher Simon Sykes wrote that the friends of the artist, who was forever moving from place to place, were surprised by the very decision to get a dog. Hockney adored his dachshunds and let them behave as they pleased. According to one story, one of the dogs once made a mess in the Los Angeles house of the actor Dennis Hopper, and the artist joked that by morning it would all be dry and could simply be picked up off the floor.

The present owner bought the painting after the "Dog Days" series was shown at the LA Louver gallery in Los Angeles. According to Hockney, 7,000 people visited the exhibition over four days, and many came with their own dogs.

Christie's will show the painting to the public from 8 October, and the sale will take place on 14 October in London during Frieze Week.