Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)

Hockney visited California for the first time in January 1964 after a successful first solo exhibition at the John Kasmin gallery. Hockney painted the first of his pool paintings, California Art Collector in 1964, and the swimming pool became a recurring theme in his paintings, such as ''Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool (1966, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) and most notably A Bigger Splash (1967, Tate Gallery). He painted a series of double portraits from 1968 to 1977, including American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman) (1968, Art Institute of Chicago), and Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy'' (1971, Tate Gallery). == Composition ==

This work brings together two of Hockney's themes from his paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s: the swimming pool, and the double portrait. It depicts a male figure in white trunks swimming underwater, and the painter Peter Schlesinger, Hockney's former lover and muse, fully clothed and standing at the edge of the pool looking down at the swimmer. Hockney's relationship with Schlesinger had ended abruptly in 1971, following a fight in Cadaqués. "By showing another young man swimming towards Peter, the artist acknowledges lost love and his boyfriend’s desire for a new partner". The painting can be viewed as fitting into a European tradition since the Renaissance of depicting the nude bathing, washing off the stain of pollution amid the peace of nature. Hockney took hundreds of photographs based on his original composition. Back at his London studio, Hockney assembled the photos along with photographs of Peter Schlesinger taken in Kensington Gardens wearing the same pink jacket. Hockney worked on the painting for two weeks, working 18-hour days, completing and varnishing it only the night before it was due to be shipped to New York for the exhibition at André Emmerich Gallery. Hockney said of the painting, "I must admit I loved working on that picture, [...] working with such intensity; it was marvellous doing it, really thrilling" The swimming pool was a recurring motif in Hockney’s work of the 1960s and 1970s, inspired by his first impressions of Los Angeles, where pools were widespread in contrast to their rarity in England. Hockney also frequently explored the California landscape in his work, showing the region’s environment and lifestyle. == Sale history ==

The painting was originally sold to James Colonsay Langhorne Astor and his wife in 1972 for $18,000 (). It was acquired in 1983 by the American billionaire David Geffen, who sold it to British billionaire Joe Lewis in 1995 at an undisclosed price. On 15 November 2018, in nine minutes of bidding, it was sold to an unknown buyer for $90.3 million at Christie's auction house in New York City, setting an auction record for a living artist. The sale broke the previous record for a living artist of $58 million for Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog (Orange) in 2013 and more than tripled the record for a work by Hockney, $28.5 million for Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica set in May 2018. The highest known prices for a painting by a living artist in private sales are for two paintings by Jasper Johns (born 1930): in 2006, Kenneth C. Griffin bought Johns' False Start for about $80 million ($ million in ) from David Geffen, and in 2010 Steven A. Cohen bought Johns' 1958 Flag for around $110 million (equivalent to $ million in ) from Leo Castelli's son. The buyer was later revealed to be Taiwanese multibillionaire Pierre Chen. ==Pop culture influence==

• In the American adult animated television series BoJack Horseman a painting in Bojack's house is based on Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures). • The cover art of the Mr. Oizo album Stade 2, by the artist So Me, is a deconstructed reinterpretation of Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures). ==See also==