David Hockney's first English landscape, English Garden, painted in 1965, is being shown publicly for the first time in nearly three decades before it goes under the hammer at Sotheby's. The painting, which depicts a manicured Oxfordshire garden, is expected to fetch between £2.5 million and £3.5 million.
The work was created while Hockney was teaching at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Inspired by a photograph in American Vogue by Horst P. Horst of Haseley Court, the home of designer Nancy Lancaster, Hockney painted the scene from memory, drawing on feelings of nostalgia and homesickness.
Tom Eddison, Sotheby's co-head of contemporary art in London, described the painting as 'seminal' and 'a real turning point' for the artist. 'It really lays the foundations for everything that was to come after,' he said.
English Garden was first exhibited at Kasmin Gallery in London in 1965 and last seen in a public gallery at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1970. It has remained in private hands since, appearing at auction only once in 1997.
The sale comes as Hockney, now 88, continues to work actively, with a new exhibition opening at the Serpentine Gallery in London in March. Eddison noted that the painting represents 'the root of everything that came after' in Hockney's celebrated career.
