Elizabeth Peyton stands as one of the most influential painters of her generation, credited with reviving portraiture at a moment when the genre had largely fallen out of favor. Since the early 1990s, she has developed a body of work that is both deeply personal and culturally resonant, merging art history, celebrity culture, and emotional intimacy into a distinctive visual language. Her paintings, drawings, and works on paper are characterized by their modest scale, lyrical execution, and psychological immediacy, offering a quiet yet powerful alternative to the monumental tendencies of contemporary art.

Introduction

Born in 1965 in Danbury, Connecticut, Peyton studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York between 1984 and 1987. Her early career was marked by unconventional exhibition strategies that already revealed her independent spirit. Rather than relying on traditional gallery spaces, she presented works in intimate and unexpected locations, including the Hotel Chelsea and a downtown restaurant setting.

These early gestures were not anecdotal—they established a conceptual framework for her practice. Peyton’s work would consistently resist spectacle, favoring proximity over distance, and intimacy over scale. From the outset, her paintings were conceived less as public declarations and more as personal encounters.

“Making art is making something live forever. Human beings especially—we can’t hold on to them in any way. Painting is a way of holding onto things and making things go on through time.”

Artistic Practice and Technique

Peyton’s work spans multiple mediums, including oil painting, watercolor, drawing, etching, and monotype. She is particularly associated with small-scale oil paintings on panel or canvas, often described as “jewel-like” in their concentration and intensity.

Her technique is both economical and expressive. Brushwork can appear fluid and abbreviated, at times dissolving contours into color, yet always retaining a strong emotional clarity. Her watercolors further emphasize this sense of transience, allowing figures to emerge almost atmospherically from light washes.

She frequently works from photographs, film stills, historical paintings, and media imagery. However, her process is not one of reproduction but transformation. Peyton filters these sources through a subjective lens, translating mediated images into something intimate, tactile, and emotionally charged.

Major Bodies of Work

Emerging in the 1990s, Peyton captivated the art world with her portraits of friends, celebrities and historical figures that captured the cultural iconography of the age with an intimate feminine gaze and vivid palette, a style that defined the artists later oeuvre and which helped to usher a return to figuration. Rather than operating through rigid, formally defined series, Peyton’s work evolves through recurring constellations of subjects.

One major strand of her practice focuses on historical and literary figures, including Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, Oscar Wilde, and other emblematic personalities. These works reveal her interest in myth, projection, and the emotional narratives attached to historical figures.

A second central body of work revolves around musicians and cultural icons. Figures such as Kurt Cobain, Liam Gallagher, David Bowie, and Jarvis Cocker appear not as distant celebrities, but as fragile, introspective presences. Peyton strips away the spectacle of fame, presenting instead moments of vulnerability and interiority.

Equally important are her portraits of friends, lovers, and members of her immediate circle. These works introduce a diaristic dimension, grounding her practice in lived experience and reinforcing the sense that all her subjects—famous or not—exist within the same emotional register.

In more recent years, Peyton has expanded her vocabulary to include still lifes, flowers, landscapes, and references to art history. These developments reflect a broadening of her concerns while maintaining the same sensitivity to beauty, light, and emotional nuance.

Themes and Meaning

At the core of Peyton’s work lies a meditation on looking, desire, and identification. Her paintings explore the emotional relationships we form with images, whether of public figures, historical icons, or people in our personal lives.

She engages deeply with the notion of admiration and projection. Her subjects are often individuals who have already accumulated cultural meaning, yet she reclaims them from mass-media narratives and repositions them within a more intimate, contemplative space.

There is also a strong undercurrent of queer sensibility in her work, expressed not through overt declaration but through a sustained focus on beauty, vulnerability, and emotional openness. Peyton’s portraits challenge traditional hierarchies of representation, offering an alternative vision of identity grounded in sensitivity rather than power.

Beautifully interweaving fact and fiction, Peyton successfully diminishes the traditional distance of portraiture and photography, seeking instead to enhance the inner vulnerabilities of her sitters through lush and expressive brushwork. In so doing Peyton marvelously blurs the lines between lived experience, memory and the imagination. Emerging at a time when figurative painting had been widely denounced, Peyton is today praised for reinvigorating portraiture in contemporary form, simultaneously portraying her subjects with an air close to veneration whilst imbuing them with a sense of comfortable familiarity. As she immerses the viewer into her pictorial code, Peyton skillfully invents a multisensorial aesthetic that combines the classicism of the Romantic era with the resolutely contemporary, an approach to image making that marks her out as among the most innovative and poetic artists of her generation.

Influences and Artistic Context

Peyton’s work operates at the intersection of art history and contemporary image culture. Her references range from painters such as Édouard Manet, John Singer Sargent, and Gustave Moreau to broader influences drawn from music, literature, and cinema.

At the same time, her engagement with celebrity culture aligns her loosely with the legacy of Pop Art, though her approach is fundamentally different. Where Pop artists often emphasized distance and repetition, Peyton insists on intimacy and singularity. Each image becomes a site of emotional investment rather than a critique of mass production.

Institutional Recognition and Museum Presence

Elizabeth Peyton’s importance is firmly established through her presence in major museum collections worldwide. Her works are held by leading institutions including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Tate.

Her exhibition history further confirms her international standing. The landmark survey Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton, organized by the New Museum in 2008 and later presented at the Walker Art Center, was the first major institutional overview of her work. Subsequent exhibitions include Still life at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo (2017), Aire and Angels at the National Portrait Gallery in London (2019), and Practice at UCCA Beijing (2020). These exhibitions collectively underscore her global relevance and sustained institutional interest.

Gallery Representation

Peyton is currently represented by David Zwirner, one of the most influential contemporary art galleries, which has played a key role in consolidating her international profile. She is also associated with Sadie Coles HQ in London, a gallery that has supported her work since the late 1990s.

Over time, her work has also been connected to major galleries such as Gladstone Gallery and neugerriemschneider, reflecting a strong and consistent gallery network.

Elizabeth Peyton has held numerous successful solo exhibitions in recent years. This includes at Sadie Coles HQ, Heddon Street, London, England, 1998; Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria, 1998; Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York NY, USA, 2001; The Wrong Gallery, New York NY, USA, 2003; Barbara Gladstone, at Jane Holzer apartment, New York NY, USA, 2006; Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, Belgium, 2009; Gagosian Gallery, Paris, France, 2011; Regen Projects, Los Angeles CA, USA, 2012; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, 2016; Eternal Idol, Elizabeth Peyton – Camille Claudel, The French Academy in Rome, Villa Medici, Rome, Italy, 2017; Eventyr, Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria, 2018; Practice, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, 2020; Leeahn Gallery, Seoul, Korea, 2021; Transformer, Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France, 2022.

Elizabeth Peyton’s legacy lies in her ability to restore sincerity, beauty, and emotional depth to contemporary painting. At a time when irony and conceptual distance often dominated artistic discourse, she reintroduced a form of painting grounded in feeling, admiration, and personal connection. She did not merely revive portraiture; she redefined it for a contemporary context shaped by media saturation and image circulation. Her work acknowledges the mediated nature of modern experience while insisting on the continued relevance of the human subject.

Today, Peyton’s influence can be seen across a generation of figurative painters who embrace intimacy, subjectivity, and emotional nuance. Her work remains a testament to the enduring power of painting to capture not just how people look, but how they are felt.

PART I: SUMMARY 

Auction Market Overview

2025 AUCTION STATISTICS
Turnover: USD 12,684,221
+66.1% vs. 2024
# Lots sold: 19
Sell-Through Rate: 90%

MARKET SEGMENTATION
COMING SOON

Highest Price achieved at auction:
USD 2,881,000
(19 November 2025)

Elizabeth Peyton’s market is robust and well-established. She is among the most sought-after figurative painters of her generation, with strong demand across both primary and secondary markets.

Her auction record approaches $3 million, and significant works—particularly early portraits and iconic subjects—regularly achieve seven-figure results. Collectors are drawn to the rarity of her best works, their emotional resonance, and their historical importance within the resurgence of figurative painting.

Unlike markets driven by scale or spectacle, Peyton’s market is built on intimacy and conviction. Her works reward close engagement, and this quality has contributed to sustained collector interest over time.

Auction Summary

2025 Auction Highlights

19 lots sold at auction in 2025 for a total turnover of USD 12,684,221. With 2 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 90%. The highest price has been achieved by Kurt, a painting dated 1995, that sold at Christie’s in New-York, on 19 November 2025, for USD 2,881,000, setting a new auction record for the artist.

2025 Top 3 Lots

4 lots sold for more than USD 1 million, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 8,337,940, representing 65.7% of the total turnover of 2025.

2024 Auction Highlights

9 lots sold at auction in 2024 for a total turnover of USD 7,637,759. With 4 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 69%. The highest price has been achieved at Christie’s in New-York on 14 May 2004, for Matthew, a painting dated 1997, that sold for USD 2,470,000.

2024 Top 3 Lots

2 lots sold for more than USD 1 million, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 4,829,000, representing 63.2% of the total turnover for 2024.

2023 Auction Highlights

18 lots sold at auction in 2023 for a total turnover of USD 12,801,655. With 2 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 90%. The highest price has been achieved by The Age of Innocence, an oil on board dated 2007, that sold for USD 2,645,000 at Fair Warning on 14 December 2023.

2023 Top 3 Lots

4 lots sold for more than USD 1 million, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 8,142,864, representing 63.6% of the total turnover for 2023.

2022 Auction Highlights

13 lots sold at auction in 2022 for a total turnover of USD 7,646,816. With only 1 lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 93%. The highest price has been achieved by Nick with His Eyes Shut, an oil on panel dated 2003, that sold for USD 2,470,000 at Sotheby’s in New-York on 16 November 2022.

2022 Top 3 Lots

Top Lots

#1. Kurt, 1995

Property from an Esteemed Private Collection
Christie’s New-York: 19 November 2025
Estimated: USD 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
USD 2,881,000
NEW AUCTION RECORD FOR ELIZABETH PEYTON
READ MORE IN FOCUS SECTION

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Kurt | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Kurt, 1995
Oil on canvas
24×19 inches (61 x 48.3 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Kurt 1995 Elizabeth Peyton’ (on the reverse)

‘‘There is no separation for me between people I know through their music or photos and some I know personally. The way I perceive them is very similar, in that there’s no difference between certain qualities that I find inspiring in them.’’ 

#2. Liam & Noel, 1996

Sotheby’s London: 24 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
GBP 1,992,000 / USD 2,729,040
READ MORE IN FOCUS SECTION

Liam & Noel | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Liam & Noel, 1996
Oil on board
26 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches (66.5 x 56.5 cm)
Signed, titled Liam + Noel (Gallagher) and dated 1996 (on the reverse)

#3. Nick with His Eyes Shut, 2003

Sotheby’s New York: 16th November 2022
Estimated: USD 1,000,000 – 1,500,000
USD 2,470,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965) (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Nick with His Eyes Shut, 2003
Oil on panel
11×14 inches (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
Signed, titled Nick with his Eyes Shut and dated 2003 (on the reverse)

#4. Sid Vicious Arrested, Chelsea Hotel, 1998

Sotheby’s New-York: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
USD 2,238,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965) (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Sid Vicious Arrested, Chelsea Hotel, 1998
Oil on canvas
40×30 inches (101.5 x 76 cm)
Initialed, titled and variously inscribed (on the overlap)

#5. David Bowie, 2012

Sotheby’s New York: 12 May 2021
Estimated: USD 500,000 – 700,000
USD 2,077,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965) (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
David Bowie, 2012
Oil on aluminum veneered panel
14×11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2012 on the reverse

#6. Liam + Noel in the 70s, 1997

Christie’s New York: 9 November 2021
Estimated: USD 850,000 – 1,200,000
USD 2,070,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965) (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Liam + Noel in the 70s, 1997
Oil on canvas
40×30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)

#7. David, Victoria and Brooklyn, 1999

Sotheby’s New York: 16 November 2023
Estimated: GBP 1,200,000 – 1,800,000
GBP 1,681,500 / USD 2,053,365

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965) (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
David, Victoria and Brooklyn, 1999
Oil on canvas
60 x 40 1/8 inches (152.3 x 101.8 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 1999 (on the overlap)

PART II: AUCTION RESULTS 

2026 Upcoming Lots

2026 Auction Results

PRELIMINARY AUCTION RESULTS
As of 1 June 2026

#1. Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel), 1996

Property from an Important Private Collection, New York
Sotheby’s New-York: 14 May 2026
Estimated: USD 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
USD 1,920,000

Elizabeth Peyton | Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) | The Now &

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel), 1996
Oil on board
10×8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Signed, titled Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) December 1995 and dated 1996 (on the reverse)

#2. Jarvis after Jail, 1996

Christie’s New-York: 20 May 2026
Estimated: USD 1,200,000 – 1,800,000
USD 1,651,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Jarvis after Jail | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Jarvis after Jail, 1996
Oil on board
12-1/4 x 15 inches (31.1 x 38.1 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘JARVIS (AFTER JAIL) 1996 Elizabeth Peyton’ (on the reverse)

#5. Angus and Jonathan, 2006-07

Sotheby’s New-York: 25 February 2026
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 500,000
USD 371,200

Elizabeth Peyton | Angus and Jonathan (Angus Cook and Jonathan

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Angus and Jonathan (Angus Cook and Jonathan Caplan), 2006-07
Oil on MDF
10×8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2006-2007 (on the reverse)

#6. Peconic (Ben), 2002

Christie’s New-York: 21 May 2026
Estimated: USD 250,000 – 350,000
USD 368,300

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Peconic (Ben) | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Peconic (Ben), 2002
Oil on panel
14-1/8 x 11-1/8 inches (35.8 x 28.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Peconic (Ben) Elizabeth Peyton AUGUST 2002’ (on the reverse)

#8. Vichy (David at the Spa), 1997

Christie’s New-York: 21 May 2026
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 109,950
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Vichy (David at the Spa) | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Vichy (David at the Spa), 1997
Graphite on paper
12 x 8-1/2 inches (30.5 x 21.6 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Vichy (David @ the Spa) Elizabeth Peyton 1997’ (on the reverse)

#9. Jonathan (Jonathan Horowitz), 2004

Christie’s London: 7 March 2026
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 60,960 / USD 81,435
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Jonathan (Jonathan Horowitz) | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Jonathan (Jonathan Horowitz), 2004
Charcoal on paper
13-5/8  x 11 inches (34.5 x 27.8 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Jonathan Horowitz Elizabeth J Peyton July 2004’ (on the reverse)

#10. Untitled, circa 1987

Sotheby’s New-York: 27 February 2026
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 15,360

Elizabeth Peyton | Untitled | Contemporary Discoveries | 2026 |

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Untitled, circa 1987
Oil on panel
29-3/4 x 36 inches (75.6 x 91.4 cm)

2025 Auction Results

19 lots sold at auction in 2025 for a total turnover of USD 12,684,221. With 2 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 90%. The highest price has been achieved by Kurt, a painting dated 1995, that sold at Christie’s in New-York, on 19 November 2025, for USD 2,881,000, setting a new auction record for the artist.

2025 Top 3 Lots

4 lots sold for more than USD 1 million, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 8,337,940, representing 65.7% of the total turnover of 2025.

XXXXXXXXXX

#1. Kurt, 1995

Property from an Esteemed Private Collection
Christie’s New-York: 19 November 2025
Estimated: USD 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
USD 2,881,000
NEW AUCTION RECORD FOR ELIZABETH PEYTON
READ MORE IN FOCUS SECTION

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Kurt | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Kurt, 1995
Oil on canvas
24×19 inches (61 x 48.3 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Kurt 1995 Elizabeth Peyton’ (on the reverse)

‘‘There is no separation for me between people I know through their music or photos and some I know personally. The way I perceive them is very similar, in that there’s no difference between certain qualities that I find inspiring in them.’’ 

#2. Liam & Noel, 1996

Sotheby’s London: 24 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
GBP 1,992,000 / USD 2,729,040
READ MORE IN FOCUS SECTION

Liam & Noel | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Liam & Noel, 1996
Oil on board
26 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches (66.5 x 56.5 cm)
Signed, titled Liam + Noel (Gallagher) and dated 1996 (on the reverse)

#3. Jarvis and Liam Smoking, 1997

Christie’s New-York: 14 May 2025
Estimated: USD 800,000 – 1,200,000
USD 1,623,000
READ MORE IN FOCUS SECTION

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Jarvis and Liam Smoking | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Jarvis and Liam Smoking, 1997
Oil on canvas
12 1/8 x 9 1/8 inches (30.8 x 23.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Jarvis and Liam Smoking 1997 Elizabeth Peyton’ (on the overlap)

#4. Flowers, Lichtenstein, Parsifal, 2011

Christie’s New-York: 19 November 2025
Estimated: USD 500,000 – 700,000
USD 1,104,900
READ MORE IN FOCUS SECTION

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Flowers, Lichtenstein, Parsifal | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Flowers, Lichtenstein, Parsifal, 2011
Oil on panel
12 1/8 x 9 1/8 inches (30.5 x 23 cm)

USD 1 million

#5. Jonas Kaufmann, March 2013, NYC, 2013

Edlis Neeson Collection
Christie’s New-York: 20 November 2025
Estimated: USD 400,000 – 600,000
USD 952,500

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Jonas Kaufmann, March 2013, NYC | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Jonas Kaufmann, March 2013, NYC, 2013
Oil on panel
23×18 inches (58.5 x 45.7 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Jonas Kaufmann March 2013 NYC Elizabeth Peyton 2013’ (on the reverse)

#6. What Wondrous Thing Do I See… (Lohengrin, Jonas Kaufmann), 2011-12

Selections from The Collection of Barbara Gladstone
Sotheby’s New-York: 15 May 2025
Estimated: USD 600,000 – 800,000
USD 889,000
READ MORE IN FOCUS SECTION

What Wondrous Thing Do I See… (Lohengrin, Jonas Kaufmann) | Selections from The Collection of Barbara Gladstone | Contemporary Art | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
What Wondrous Thing Do I See… (Lohengrin, Jonas Kaufmann), 2011-12
Oil on veneered panel
9×11 inches (22.9 x 27.9 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2011-2012 (on the reverse)

#7. Spencer (Two Palms), 2002

Phillips London: 26 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 600,000 – 800,000
GBP 635,000 / USD 869,950
READ MORE IN FOCUS SECTION

Elizabeth Peyton Modern & Contemporary Art: Evening & Day Sale

USD 500,000

#8. Tony Reading (Silver Tony), 1999

Works from the Collection of Byron R. Meyer with Partial Proceeds
to Benefit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Sotheby’s New-York: 19 November 2025
Estimated: USD 500,000 – 700,000
USD 457,200
READ MORE IN FOCUS SECTION

Tony Reading (Silver Tony) | Contemporary Day Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Tony Reading (Silver Tony), 1999
Oil on MDF
14 1/4 x 11 inches (36.2 x 27.9 cm)
Signed, titled, dated 1999 and inscribed Tony Just (age 30) (on the reverse)

#9. The Origin of the Order of the Garter, 1995

Christie’s New-York: 15 May 2025
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 500,000
USD 441,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), The Origin of the Order of the Garter | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
The Origin of the Order of the Garter, 1995
Oil on panel
20×16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Signed and dated ‘Elizabeth Peyton 1995’ (on the reverse)

#10. Yuzuru (Helsinki Grand Prix), 2018

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2024
Estimated: HKD 1,500,000 – 2,500,000
HKD 1,386,000 / USD 178,149
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Yuzuru (Helsinki Grand Prix) | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Yuzuru (Helsinki Grand Prix), 2018
Monotype on Twinrocker handmade paper
31 3/8 x 23 3/8 inches (79.7 x 59.5 cm)

#11. Franz in Hamburg, 1995

Sotheby’s Milan: 26 November 2025
Estimated: EUR 100,000 – 150,000
EUR 107,950 / USD 124,845

Franz in Hamburg | Modern and Contemporary Art | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Franz in Hamburg, 1995
Oil on board
7 1/8 x 4 1/8 inches (18×10 cm)
Signed, dated 1995 and inscribed FRANZ ACKERMAN on the reverse

USD 100,000

#12. Balzac + Roses, 2008

Christie’s London: 6 March 2025
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 69,300 / USD 88,755
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Balzac + Roses | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Balzac + Roses, 2008
Watercolor on paper
12 1/4 x 9 inches (31×23 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Balzac + Roses Elizabeth Peyton 2008’ (on the reverse)

“I just have a feeling of urgency that I want to make a picture of somebody.
Probably because I’m very inspired by them or there is something I really want to know about or understand in them.
So, fascination? Yes. Admiration? Yes.  But also, curiosity.
I get fascinated by what people are doing and what they’re making and how it’s what I need at that moment.”

#13. Brian Epstein, 1998

Phillips London: 18 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 45,000 – 65,000
GBP 64,500 / USD 86,605
WORK ON PAPER

Elizabeth Peyton Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale

#14. Prince Harry, September 1998, 1998

#15. Prince Harry, 1998

Phillips Hong-Kong: 28 September 2025
Estimated: HKD 300,000 – 500,000
HKD 412,800 / USD 53,065
WORK ON PAPER

Elizabeth Peyton Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale

#16. Jake and Heath (Jack and Ennis), 2012-13

Sotheby’s London: 25 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 40,000
GBP 27,940 / USD 38,280
WORK ON PAPER

Jake and Heath (Jack and Ennis) | Contemporary Day Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Jake and Heath (Jack and Ennis), 2012-13
Colored pencil and pastel on black paper
11 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches (29.8 x 21 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2012+2013 (on the verso)

#17. Two Women (Flaubert in Egypt, After Delacroix), 2010

Christie’s London: 16 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 20,000
GBP 27,940 / USD 37,450
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Two Women (Flaubert in Egypt, After Delacroix) | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Two Women (Flaubert in Egypt, After Delacroix), 2010
Colored pencil and pastel on paper
9 1/2 x 7 1/8 inches (24 x 18.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated
‘Two Women (Flaubert in Egypt, After Delacroix) Elizabeth Peyton 2010’
(on the reverse)

#18. Untitled, 2002

Grisebach Berlin: 27 November 2025
Estimated: EUR 15,000 – 20,000
EUR 27,940 / USD 32,415

| Grisebach

ELIZABETH PEYTON (Danbury, Connecticut 1965 – lives in New York and Paris)
Untitled, 2002
Colored pencil on cardboard
7 x 5 1/2 inches (17.8 x 14 cm)
On the reverse dated, dedicated and signed in blue ballpoint ink: February 2002 […] Elizabeth
There too inscribed with the work number in pencil: EP 704d. [3258]

#19. Untitled, circa 1991

Sotheby’s New-York: 1 October 2025
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 31,750

Untitled | Contemporary Discoveries | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Untitled, circa 1991
Oil on found glass window
30 3/4 x 27 3/4 inches (78.1 x 70.5 cm)

Lots Passed

Balzac Still Life, 2008

Sotheby’s London: 25 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 200,000 – 300,000
PASSED

Balzac Still Life | Contemporary Day Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Balzac Still Life, 2008
Oil on board
14 1/2 x 11 3/8 inches (36.7 x 28.8 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2008 May (on the reverse)

Untitled, circa 1991

Sotheby’s New-York: 28 February 2025
Estimated: USD 40,000 – 60,000
PASSED

Untitled | Contemporary Discoveries | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Untitled, circa 1991
Oil on found glass window
30 3/4 x 27 3/4 inches (78.1 x 70.5 cm)

2024 Auction Results

9 lots sold at auction in 2024 for a total turnover of USD 7,637,759. With 4 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 69%. The highest price has been achieved at Christie’s in New-York on 14 May 2004, for Matthew, a painting dated 1997, that sold for USD 2,470,000. 2 lots sold for more than USD 1 million, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 4,829,000, representing 63.2% of the total turnover for 2024.

2024 Top 3 Lots

#1. Matthew, 1997

Christie’s New-York: 14 May 2024
Estimated: USD 1,000,000 – 1,500,000
USD 2,470,000

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6482278

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Matthew, 1997
Oil on canvas
39 x 27 3/4 inches (99×70 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Matthew, May 1997, Elizabeth Peyton’ (on the overlap)

#2. Kurt (sunglasses), 1995

Phillips New-York: 19 November 2024
Estimated: USD 600,000 – 800,000
USD 2,359,000

Elizabeth Peyton – Modern & Contempo… Lot 3 November 2024 | Phillips

#3. Christmas (Tony), 2000

Sotheby’s New-York: 14 May 2024
Estimated: USD 600,000 – 800,000
USD 752,000

Christmas (Tony) | Contemporary Day Auction | 2024 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Christmas (Tony), 2000
Oil on panel
12 x 9 1/8 inches (30.5 x 23.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2000 (on the reverse)

#4. Torino (Tony) Sept. 99, 1999

Phillips London: 10 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 300,000 – 500,000
GBP 431,800 / USD 564,205

Elizabeth Peyton – Modern & Contempor… Lot 7 October 2024 | Phillips

#5. Queen Elizabeth II, 1995

Sotheby’s London: 25 June 2024
Estimated: GBP 300,000 – 600,000
GBP 384,000 / USD 486,912

Queen Elizabeth II | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction, including the Ralph I. Goldenberg Collection | 2024 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Queen Elizabeth II, 1995
Oil on board
10 1/8 x 8 inches (25.8 x 20.5 cm)

#6. Maurizio Eating, 1999

Christie’s New-York: 17 May 2024
Estimated: USD 350,000 – 550,000
USD 441,000

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6482475

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Maurizio Eating, 1999
Oil on panel
12 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches (30.8 x 23.5 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Maurizio eating 1999 Elizabeth Peyton’ (on the reverse)

#7. Alex (Alex Katz) Winter 2012, 2012

Phillips New-York: 20 November 2024
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 400,000
USD 304,800

Elizabeth Peyton – Modern & Contem… Lot 318 November 2024 | Phillips

#8. Marcello, 1996

Christie’s London: 9 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 176,400 / USD 226,822
WORK ON PAPER

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6470177

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Marcello, 1996
Watercolor on paper
12 1/4 x 9 inches (31×23 cm)

#9. Untitled (Elizabeth), 1993

Phillips New-York: 15 May 2024
Estimated: USD 12,000 – 18,000
USD 33,020
WORK ON PAPER

https://www.phillips.com/detail/elizabeth-peyton/NY010524/417

2023 Auction Results

18 lots sold at auction in 2023 for a total turnover of USD 12,801,655.

With 2 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 90%. The highest price has been achieved by The Age of Innocence, an oil on board dated 2007, that sold for USD 2,645,000 at Fair Warning on 14 December 2023. 4 lots sold for more than USD 1 million, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 8,142,864, representing 63.6% of the total turnover for 2023.

2023 Top 3 Lots

#1. The Age of Innocence, 2007

Fair Warning: 14 December 2023
Estimated: USD 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
USD 2,645,000

PAST LOTS (fair-warning.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON
The Age of Innocence, 2007
Oil on board
36 1/4 x 25 3/8 inches (92 x 64.2 cm)

#2. Sid Vicious Arrested, Chelsea Hotel, 1998

Sotheby’s New-York: 15 November 2023
Estimated: USD 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
USD 2,238,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Sid Vicious Arrested, Chelsea Hotel | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Sid Vicious Arrested, Chelsea Hotel, 1998
Oil on canvas
40×30 inches (101.5 x 76 cm)
Initialed, titled and variously inscribed (on the overlap)

#3. David, Victoria and Brooklyn, 1999

Sotheby’s London: 12 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 1,200,000 – 1,800,000
GBP 1,681,500 / USD 2,053,364

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), David, Victoria and Brooklyn | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
David, Victoria and Brooklyn, 1999
Oil on canvas
60 x 40 1/8 inches (152.3 x 101.8 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 1999 (on the overlap)

#4. Mendips, 1996

Phillips New York: 14 November 2023
Estimated: USD 900,000 – 1,200,000
USD 1,206,500

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Mendips, 1963 | Phillips (phillips.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Mendips, 1963, 1996
Oil on canvas
32 1/4 x 28 1/4 inches (81.9 x 71.8 cm)

#5. Kiss, 2019

Sotheby’s New York: 19 May 2023
Estimated: USD 600,000 – 800,000
USD 825,500

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Kiss | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Kiss, 2019
Oil on panel
12×9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2019 (on the reverse)

#6. Prince Harry, September 1998, 1998

Phillips London: 30 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 400,000 – 600,000
GBP 488,950 / USD 621,362

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Prince Harry, September 1998 | Phillips (phillips.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Prince Harry, September 1998, 1998
Oil on board
10 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches (26.1 x 21.1 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Prince Harry, September 1998 Elizabeth Peyton, Elizabeth Peyton 1998’ on the reverse

#7. Harry and Tittie, 2003

Sotheby’s New York: 9 March 2023
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 400,000
USD 508,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Harry and Tittie | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Harry and Tittie, 2003
Oil on fiberboard
9×7 inches (22.9 x 17.8 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2003 (on the reverse)

#8. Haircut (Ben & Spencer), 2002

Christie’s Hong Kong: 29 May 2023
Estimated: HKD 2,500,000 – 4,500,000
HKD 3,528,000 / USD 450,672

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Haircut (Ben & Spencer) | Christie’s (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Haircut (Ben & Spencer), 2002
Oil on board
12 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches (30.8 x 23.4 cm)
Signed with artist’s signature, titled and dated ‘Haircut (Ben & Spencer) SEPT 2002’ (on the reverse)

#9. Angela, 2017

Sotheby’s London: 27 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 500,000 – 700,000
GBP 349,250 / USD 445,358

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Angela | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Angela, 2017
Oil on board
17×14 inches (43.2 x 35.6 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2017 (on the reverse)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Balzac Still Life, 2008
Oil on board
14 1/2 x 11 3/8 inches (36.7 x 28.8 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2008 May (on the reverse)

#11. Mark (Smoking), 1996

Christie’s London: 14 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 289,800 / USD 351,400
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Mark (Smoking) | Christie’s (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Mark (Smoking), 1996
Watercolor and graphite on paper
12 1/4 x 9 1/8 inches (31.1 x 23.1 cm)

#12. David, 1988-89

Christie’s London: 28 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 280,000 – 350,000
GBP 252,000 / USD 318,382

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), David | Christie’s (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
David, 1988-89
Oil on panel
19 x 13 1/2 inches (48.3 x 34.3 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘David Elizabeth Peyton 1988 ? 1989 ?’ (on the reverse)

#13. Kurt, 1999

Sotheby’s New York: 16th November 2023
Estimated: USD 100,000 – 150,000 
USD 304,800
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Kurt | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Kurt, 1999
Watercolor on paper
14 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches (36.2 x 26 cm)
Titled (lower left); dated 1999 (lower right); signed, titled and dated May 99 (on the verso)

#14. Georgia O’Keeffe after Stieglitz 1918 (with hat), 2006

Christie’s Paris: 19 October 2023
Estimated: EUR 40,000 – 60,000
EUR 214,200 / USD 226,403
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Georgia O’Keefe after Stieglitz 1918 (with hat) | Christie’s (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Georgia O’Keeffe after Stieglitz 1918 (with hat), 2006
Watercolor on paper
14 1/8 x 10 1/4 inches (36×26 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”’Georgia O’Keeffe AFTER STIEGLITZ (WITH HAT) (1918)” Elizabeth 2006′ (on the reverse)

#15. Marie Antoinette, 1993

Im Kinsky: 27 November 2023
Estimated: EUR 70,000 – 140,000
EUR 100,680 / USD 110,121
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Marie Antoinette | Im Kinsky (imkinsky.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Marie Antoinette, 1993
20×15 cm
Inscribed, dedicated, dated and signed on the reverse: Marie Antoinette for Rudy, 1993, Elizabeth Peyton

#16. Lord Alfred Douglas, 2004

Sotheby’s London: 25 January 2023
Estimated: GBP 12,000 – 18,000
GBP 25,200 / USD 31,176
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Lord Alfred Douglas | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Lord Alfred Douglas, 2004
Color pencil and collage on paper
8 1/2 x 6 1/8 inches (21.5 x 15.5cm)
Titled; signed, dated November 2004 and dedicated on the reverse

#17. Untitled (Barenboim and Bosie), 1993

Phillips New York: 15 November 2023
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 20,000
USD 17,780
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Untitled (Barenboim and Bosie), 1993
Charcoal on paper
16 1/2 by 11 3/4 in. (41.9 by 29.8 cm.)

#18. Untitled (Royals – Harry and William), 1997

Phillips London: 12 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 10,000 – 15,000
GBP 13,335 / USD 16,284
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Untitled (Royals – Harry and William) | Phillips (phillips.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Untitled (Royals – Harry and William), 1997
Graphite on paper
12 1/8 x 8 5/8 inches (30.8 x 21.9 cm)
Titled ‘Harry + William’ lower right; signed, titled and dated ‘Harry + William Elizabeth Peyton 1997’ on the reverse

Lots Passed

Piotr, 1996

Sotheby’s New York: 18 May 2023
Estimated: USD 600,000 – 800,000
PASSED

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Piotr | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Piotr, 1996
oil on paper
35 1/2 x 87 1/4 inches (90.2 x 221.6 cm)

Beck, 1996

Sotheby’s New York: 19 July 2023
Estimated: USD 18,000 – 25,000
PASSED

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Beck | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Beck, 1996
Charcoal and graphite on paper
13 7/8 x 11 inches (35.2 x 27.9 cm)
Titled, dated 1996 and variously inscribed (on the verso)

2022 Auction Results

13 lots sold at auction in 2022 for a total turnover of USD 7,646,816.

With only 1 lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 93%. The highest price has been achieved by Nick with His Eyes Shut, an oil on panel dated 2003, that sold for USD 2,470,000 at Sotheby’s in New-York on 16 November 2022.

2022 Top 3 Lots

#1. Nick with His Eyes Shut, 2003

Sotheby’s New York: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 1,000,000 – 1,500,000
USD 2,470,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Nick with His Eyes Shut | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Nick with His Eyes Shut, 2003
Oil on panel
11×14 inches (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
Signed, titled Nick with his Eyes Shut and dated 2003 (on the reverse)

#2. Liam Gallagher (Glastonbury 1995), 1995

Christie’s New York: 10th May 2022
Estimated: USD 600,000 – 800,000
USD 1,740,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Liam Gallagher (Glastonbury 1995) | Christie’s (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Liam Gallagher (Glastonbury 1995), 1995
Oil on panel
22 1/8 x 18 1/8 inches (56.2 x 46 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘LIAM GALLAGHER (GLASTONBURY 1995) Elizabeth Peyton 1995’ (on the reverse)

#5. Evan at the Reading Festival 1993, 1997

Phillips New-York: 14 October 2022
Estimated: USD 480,000 – 650,000
USD 567,000 

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Evan at the Reading Festival 1993 | Phillips (phillips.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Evan at the Reading Festival, 1993, 1997
Oil on board
12 x 9 1/4 inches (30.6 x 23.4 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘evan @ the reading festival 1993 1997 Elizabeth Peyton’ on the reverse

#6. Burkhard Riemscheider, 1995

Phillips New York: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 450,000 – 650,000
USD 567,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Burkhard Riemschneider | Phillips (phillips.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Burkhard Riemschneider, 1995
Oil on board
17 1/8 by 14 1/8 in. (43.5 x 35.9 cm)
signed, titled and dated “BURKHARD RIEMSCHNEIDER Elizabeth Peyton 1995” on the reverse

#8. Tony Just, 2000

Sotheby’s London: 30 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 90,720 / USD 110,311
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Tony Just | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Tony Just, 2000
Watercolor on paper
12 1/4 x 9 inches (31.1 x 22.8 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2000 on the reverse

#9. Nick (One), 2002

Christie’s New York: 13 May 2022
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 100,800
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Nick (One) | Christie’s (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Nick (One), 2002
Monotype on paper
12×9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Signed and dated ‘Elizabeth Peyton 2002’ (lower left)

#10. Lugwig II Caresses Marie Antoinette, 1993

Phillips New York: 19 May 2022
Estimated: USD 70,000 – 90,000
USD 88,200

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Lugwig II Caresses Marie Antoinette | Phillips (phillips.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Ludwig II Caresses Marie Antoinette, 1993
Oil on canvas
14×11 inches (35.6 x  27.9 cm)
Signed, titled, dedicated and dated “LUDWIG II CARRESSES [sic] MARIE ANTOINETTE To Brett with love from Elizabeth 1993” on the stretcher

#11. Adam from I.D. Magazine, 1998

Sotheby’s London: 15 October 2022
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 40,000
GBP 71,820 / USD 80,290
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Adam from I.D. Magazine | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Adam from I.D. Magazine, 1998
Watercolor on paper
16 1/4 x 12 7/8 inches (41.3 x 32.8 cm)

#12. Andy in the 70s, 1996

Sotheby’s New York: 15 December 2022
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 25,000
USD 18,900
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Andy in the 70s | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Andy in the 70s, 1996
Graphite on paper
7 1/4 x  5 1/4 inches (18.4 x  13.3 cm)
Titled (lower right); Signed, titled and dated 1996 (on the reverse)

#13. Flowers + Camille, 2009

Christie’s London: 18 October 2022
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 12,600 / USD 14,245
WORK ON PAPER

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Flowers + Camille | Christie’s (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Flowers + Camille, 2009
Colored pencil, graphite and ink on paper
11 5/8 x 9 inches (29.5 x 22.7 cm)
Signed, titled, inscribed and dated ‘Flowers + Camille Elizabeth Peyton (Berlin 2009)’ (on the reverse)

2021 Auction Results

12 lots sold at auction in 2021 for a total turnover of USD 7,789,919.

With 2 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 986%. The highest price has been achieved by David Bowie, an oil on panel dated 2012, that sold for USD 2,077,000 at Sotheby’s in New-York on 12 May 2021.

#1. David Bowie, 2012

Sotheby’s New York: 12 May 2021
Estimated: USD 500,000 – 700,000
USD 2,077,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), David Bowie | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
David Bowie, 2012
Oil on aluminum veneered panel
14×11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
signed, titled and dated 2012 on the reverse

#2. Liam + Noel in the 70s, 1997

Christie’s New York: 9 November 2021
Estimated: USD 850,000 – 1,200,000
USD 2,070,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Liam + Noel in the 70s | Christie’s (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Liam + Noel in the 70s, 1997
Oil on canvas
40×30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)

#4. Julie (Julie Mehretu), 2015

Christie’s London: 30 June 2021
Estimated: GBP 400,000 – 600,000
GBP 682,500 / USD 942,289

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Julie (Julie Mehretu) | Christie’s (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Julie (Julie Mehretu), 2015
Oil on board
15×12 inches (38.1 x 30.5 cm)
Inscribed ‘J’ (lower left)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Julie (Julie Mehretu) Elizabeth Peyton 2015’ (on the reverse)

#5. Sara, 1996

Sotheby’s London: 29 June 2021
Estimated: GBP 200,000 – 300,000
GBP 414,300 / USD 573,584

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Sara | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Sara, 1996
Oil on board
9 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches (23.4 x 18.4 cm)

#6. Nude (Tony), 2001

Sotheby’s New York: 19 November 2021
Estimated: USD 180,000 – 250,000
USD 378,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Nude (Tony) | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Nude (Tony), 2001
Oil on panel
6 1/8 x 8 1/8 inches (15.6 x 20.6 cm)
Signed twice with the artist’s monogram, titled and dated 2001 (on the reverse)

PART III: FOCUS

Celebrity Portraits

Jarvis after Jail, 1996

Christie’s New-York: 20 May 2026
Estimated: USD 1,200,000 – 1,800,000
USD 1,651,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Jarvis after Jail | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Jarvis after Jail, 1996
Oil on board
12-1/4 x 15 inches (31.1 x 38.1 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘JARVIS (AFTER JAIL) 1996 Elizabeth Peyton’ (on the reverse)

Richard Hamilton, Swingeing London 67 (f), 1968-1969. Tate, London. © R. Hamilton. All Rights Reserved, DACS and ARS 2026.

Cocker was by no means the first musician to have fallen foul of a public ideal of perfection and subsequently caught the attention of artists. From Andy Warhol’s immortalization of Elvis Presley and John Lennon at the height of media frenzy to Richard Hamilton’s Swinging London (1968-69), capturing the moment in 1967 when Mick Jagger, lead singer of the Rolling Stones, was released after being arrested for drug possession, the media roller-coaster of Pop icons has provided a rich seam of subject material for artists.

Jarvis after Jail was painted shortly after Peyton’s breakthrough solo show at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York. Reviewing that show, The New York Times critic Roberta Smith noted, “Her penchant for indicating his pale skin and bleached hair with stark white lines gives his famous charisma an incandescent glow that seems to be both coming into focus and fading away. In these and other ways, the auras of painting and fame are repeatedly equated” (R. Smith, “Blood and Punk Royalty to Grunge Royalty,” The New York Times, March 24, 1995, p. C30, online [accessed:10/23/2025]).   It is precisely due to this beguiling nature that Peyton decided to revisit Cocker in several institutional works, including Jarvis (1998) in the Boros Collection, Berlin; and Jarvis Cocker (1996) in the Seattle Art Museum. 

Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, circa 1975.
© 2026 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS).

Sotheby’s New-York: 15 May 2026
Estimated: USD 900,000 – 1,200,000
USD 998,400

Elizabeth Peyton | Mendips | Contemporary Day Auction | 2026 |

REPEAT SALE

Phillips New York: 14 November 2023
Estimated: USD 900,000 – 1,200,000
USD 1,206,500

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Mendips, 1963 | Phillips (phillips.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Mendips, 1996
Oil on canvas
32-1/4 x 28-1/4 inches (81.9 x 71.8 cm)

A red-lipped young man slouches in a verdant garden in Elizabeth Peyton’s 1996 painting, Mendips, 1963, holding a baby dressed in white. At first glance, the pale, lithe man seems an interchangeable member of the chorus of beautiful young people Peyton painted in the 1990s, a roster that included friends, lovers, historical figures, and celebrities. However, figural clues (from the man’s bowl cut to the infant in his arms), along with the work’s title, reveal the specificity of Peyton’s vision: a photograph of John Lennon at his family home, Mendips, in Liverpool, holding his infant son, Julian, born in 1963. Painted the year after Peyton was featured at the Venice Biennale in 1995, Mendips, 1963, presents the compositional elements and wider themes that brought her renown as a figural artist in the 1990s, with enchanting portraits that engage cultural ideals of fame, artistry, and intimacy. Photographs have long been a source of inspiration for Peyton. By drawing from photographs, Peyton engages a long-standing question of modern art, from the Impressionists onwards, of the relationship between painting and photography. Gerhard Richter’s photo paintings stand as a contemporary forebear to Peyton’s method. But where artists like Richter use photography as a tool against subjectivity and sentimentality, Peyton is forthcoming in her love and personal admiration for her painted subjects. Rather than focusing on the materiality of the photograph itself, she hones in on the personality of the subject, and “at some point,” she says, “the photo’s got to get lost.”

With Mendips, 1963, the original photograph of John and Julian “gets lost” through Peyton’s painterly interventions. She alters the composition in slight, yet significant ways, tilting Lennon, who stands upright in the photograph, on a diagonal, and cropping the canvas closer to his body, which encourages a more intimate relationship between figure and viewer. Peyton also trades in the photographer’s black and white for a vibrant palette of spring greens, and the photograph’s realistic precision gives way to rounded, swishing brushstrokes and an abstracted background. Lennon’s face grows angular, and his features more stylized; he averts his gaze, in demure contrast to his photographed self. Peyton paints his berry-red lips parted and full, almost like a Pre-Raphaelite model’s. Her brushstrokes seem to transform the suburban Liverpool setting of Mendips, 1963 into a mythical English garden.

Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel), 1996

Property from an Important Private Collection, New York
Sotheby’s New-York: 14 May 2026
Estimated: USD 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
USD 1,920,000

Elizabeth Peyton | Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) | The Now &

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel), 1996
Oil on board
10×8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Signed, titled Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) December 1995 and dated 1996 (on the reverse)

Brushstrokes of vibrant color and sincere tenderness coalesce upon the intimately scaled picture plane of Elizabeth Peyton’s Earl’s Court. One of the most influential figurative artists working today, Peyton is celebrated for her paintings that portray cultural icons and close friends with a singularly tender and observant gaze that unearths the profound essence lying behind each of her subjects. Executed in 1996, the present work captures Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher kissing his brother Noel on the cheek, at the apex of their fame and cultural potency.

“Making art is making something live forever. Human beings especially—we can’t hold on to them in any way. Painting is a way of holding onto things and making things go on through time.”

Inextricably woven into the mythological fabric of British music following their first two albums of immense commercial success and critical acclaim, Oasis played two iconic sold-out shows at London’s Earl’s Court on November 4th and 6th, 1995, from which Peyton’s intimate composition takes its inspiration. Here, the artist freezes these rockstars in a pivotal moment of their lives, the composition radiating not only the fervor surrounding the band, but also Peyton’s singular ability to capture the psychological undertow behind public image, portending the eventual friction that grew between the two brothers.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Narcissus, c.1597–99. Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Barberini Corsini, Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Image © Luisa Ricciarini / Bridgeman Images

Oasis, led by two brothers, Noel and Liam Gallagher, hailing from Manchester, was indubitably the cornerstone of Britpop’s meteoric ascent to global prominence. Their second studio album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, released a year prior to the execution of Earl’s Court, catapulted the band into becoming a worldwide rock phenomenon as it spent 10 weeks at number one in the United Kingdom Albums Chart and reached number four on the U.S. Billboard 200. Coupled with their stardom was extensive paparazzi coverage on their daily lives, often offering narratives of the brothers as combative and volatile, marked by high tension and frequent public fighting. Here in Earl’s Court, Peyton frames them in a moment of intimacy and repose, zooming in on Liam and inviting the viewer to gaze closely at the protagonist. Against a luscious maroon backdrop, he is seen in a purple jacket patterned with cobalt flowers, encapsulating the working-class cool that became a hallmark of the Oasis aesthetic. Unlike how the tabloids would make their relationship seem, the Gallaghers here appear in a moment of fragility, care, and boyish joy; Peyton’s luminous palette, diaphanous facture, and refined sense of composition thus imbues the painting with a heightened emotionality, taking two idols of celebrity and turning them into a poetic meditation on kinship, fame, love, rivalry, and vulnerability.

Left: Lucian Freud, Boy Smoking, 1950–51. Tate Modern, London. Image © The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved 2026 / Bridgeman Images. Art © 2026 Lucian Freud.
Right: Andy Warhol, Double Elvis, 1963. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY. Art © 2026 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Peyton’s lush and swift brushstrokes oscillate between projection and interiority, a dynamic central to the potency of Earl’s Court and her celebrated practice in portraiture. By appropriating an original photograph and elevating the moment to a new contemplative level, she deftly contrasts the brothers’ increasingly strained relationship with their unprecedented musical success, their idolization as rock stars with their mutual care and appreciation as siblings, their glories with their faults. As art critic Jon Savage explains, Peyton is “an unashamed fan” with “an idiosyncratic, feminine gaze” that invites us to encounter hypermasculine icons not as caricatures but as individuals caught in the tensions of visibility and myth: “It’s all right for disco divas to take off the slap when they get home, but rock stars have to be who they are, offstage and on. This absurd state of affairs crucifies lives and stunts individual and collective growth. Peyton is careful to emphasize male tenderness.” (Jon Savage, “Boys Keep Swinging, Elizabeth Peyton,” Frieze, November – December 1996 (online)) In the process, she reanimates nineteenth-century traditions of portraiture, which glorified high art while also finding beauty in unifying the subject with expressions of humanity.

“It’s almost a nineteenth-century idea that what’s on the inside appears on the outside, Balzac was into the curve of your nose or mouth, expressing some kind of inner quality that it could be read on your face.” 

Market Precedents

Peyton emerged in the 1990s and immediately captivated the art world with her portraits of friends, artists, musicians, and historical figures rendered with an intimate gaze and vivid palette, parsing the cultural iconography of her generation. Fundamentally, Peyton regards her works as “paintings of people,” capturing an individual’s essence in a manner reminiscent of still life. Painting her friends and public figures with equal reverence.

“There is no separation for me between people I know through their music or photos and someone I know personally. The way I perceive them is very similar, in that there’s no difference between certain qualities that I find inspiring in them.”

Peyton has through her celebrated career enacted a quiet but radical flattening of social hierarchy, a decisive spotlighting of the tender humanity lying in us all. The 8-by-10 inch composition of Earl’s Court thus captures one such moment, the complicated intertwining of brotherly love found in two legendary icons of popular culture. In doing so, the present work decisively affirms Elizabeth Peyton’s singular position as one of the most perceptive chroniclers of fame and cultural mythology.

Kurt, 1995

Property from an Esteemed Private Collection
Christie’s New-York: 19 November 2025
Estimated: USD 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
USD 2,881,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Kurt | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Kurt, 1995
Oil on canvas
24×19 inches (61 x 48.3 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Kurt 1995 Elizabeth Peyton’ (on the reverse)

Elizabeth Peyton’s Kurt belongs to a much-celebrated series of portraits of the singer Kurt Cobain, the lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter for Nirvana—whom the artist had painted the year following his passing in 1994, at the age of just 27. His sudden death affected an entire generation of young fans who felt a close personal connection both to his uniquely authentic brand of music and his struggles with mental health and addiction. One of those who resonated with the power of music was Peyton herself.

“There’s something in music that fascinates me, how it communicates emotion so immediately. That’s something I wanted in my paintings.”

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana during the taping of MTV Unplugged at Sony Studios in New York City, 11/18/93.
Photo by Frank Micelotta via Alamy.

Peyton’s portraits of Kurt Cobain are filled with both beauty and pathos. Wearing a shirt made out of loosely fitting blue fabric, the singer’s delicate features are formed using the skillful movement of the artist’s fluid brushstrokes. The characteristic tussles of the singer’s blond hair appears to glow against the dark ground, as Peyton infuses the tips of his locks with golden highlights. Finally, the deep pools of blue for his downcast eyes and the bright red ‘pop’ of Cobain’s cherry red lips completes the intense yet intimate composition.

Human emotion and artistry have always been fundamental themes in Peyton’s work. Peyton produced Kurt ahead of her first solo exhibition at Gavin Brown’s enterprise. Within the intimate storefront space of the gallery, these expressions of emotional connection radiated intensely. This exhibition helped launch Peyton’s career and established the significance of her approach to figuration. Other paintings of the Nirvana lead singer included Zok’s Kurt, Alizerean Kurt, Blur Kurt, Kurt Sleeping, Kurt Smoking, and Blue Kurt. Created during a period when other artists rejected the painted portrait, Peyton’s work freshly rejuvenates the style. She employs the paint in a sensitive and expressive manner, not afraid to expose her painterly brush strokes. Her vibrant colors expose the underlying personal sentiments that exist between the artist and her subjects.

John Singer Sargent, Man Wearing Laurels, 1874-80. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Peyton’s rapidly applied, expressive brushstrokes that make up Cobain’s shirt evoke Willem de Kooning’s emotive abstract figures, while the degree of intimacy with which her figures are executed recalls the Renaissance portrait miniatures of Nicholas Hilliard. Furthermore, the angst and emotions that are apparent in Peyton’s work have drawn comparisons with the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Amadeo Modigliani, Jeanne Hébuterne with Yellow Sweater (Le sweater jaune), 1918-19, Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Elizabeth Peyton’s subjects find themselves inhabiting a magical space where many overlapping and divergent worlds coalesce. In her hands, the 90s-era aesthetic personified by the present work transcends time. Using heightened colors, intense and intimate detail and a votive-like approach to her subjects, Peyton has found a way to be both of her time and yet mystically of another time. Connected to an earlier, mythical and allegorical world, Kurt is infused with poetry and legend, and offers up a beautiful Romantic dream.

Spencer (Two Palms), 2002

Phillips London: 26 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 600,000 – 800,000
GBP 635,000 / USD 869,950

Elizabeth Peyton Modern & Contemporary Art: Evening & Day Sale

Painted in 2002, Spencer (Two Palms) is a deeply sensitive yet robust exploration of contemporary portraiture by a leading figure of the discipline, Elizabeth Peyton. Executed at a critical moment in her practice, this vibrant, psychologically-charged portrait depicts artist, musician and former club owner Spencer Sweeney, a key figure in the late 1990s and early 2000s downtown New York scene. With its ethereal palette and delicate yet deliberate brushwork, Spencer (Two Palms) bridges the intimacy of private life and the radiance of public mythology, exemplifying Peyton’s singular contribution to the genre of portrait painting.

Édouard Manet, Portrait of Alphonse Maureau, 1878-1879, Art Institute of Chicago.
Image: Art Institute of Chicago, Bequest of Kate L. Brewster, 1950.123

Bathed in the atmospheric rays of a muggy summer morning in New York City, Sweeney sits poised in a light-flooded apartment, paused in a moment of quiet contemplation. His vivid pink T-shirt, adorned with two hummingbirds feeding on blooming yellow flowers, introduces a note of playful elegance that offsets his pale, sleep-shadowed face and steady gaze. He is caught in a moment, reflective and romanticized yet rendered through Peyton’s characteristically unironic handling of her medium. For the artist, an intimate connection between artist and sitter is a prerequisite for all her works:

“I just have a feeling of urgency that I want to make a picture of somebody. Probably because I’m very inspired by them or there is something I really want to know about or understand in them. So, fascination? Yes. Admiration? Yes. But also curiosity — I get fascinated by what people are doing and what they’re making and how it’s what I need at that moment.” 

With his hands folded loosely on his lap and his eyes cast just off-canvas, Peyton masterfully captures both Sweeney’s effortless bravado and the ubiquitous creative spirit of the early 2000s downtown New York scene. Peyton first rose to prominence in the 1990s with her jewel-toned, small-scale portraits of historical and cultural icons—Napoleon Bonaparte, Kurt Cobain, Princess Diana—figures drawn from art, literature, music and history. But by the early 2000s, her focus had shifted from distant admiration to lived experience. She turned her attention more closely to those within her own milieu: painting friends, collaborators and fellow creatives whose presence offered new emotional registers. Spencer (Two Palms) is a key product of this shift, demonstrating Peyton’s deepening engagement with real-time intimacy and contemporary cultural life. The present work is part of a celebrated suite of paintings that centers on Spencer Sweeney, a fixture in New York’s early 2000s art and nightlife scenes. Peyton and Sweeney met through the legendary downtown gallery world of Colin de Land and Pat Hearn, and their friendship sparked a series of portraits that have since entered the artist’s celebrated canon. Two related works are held in significant institutional collections: Spencer (1999) in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Spencer (Spencer Sweeney) (2005) in the Rubell Museum, Miami. Positioned between these two examples in both date and scale, Spencer (Two Palms) stands out for its lyrical intensity and nuanced characterization.

In her 2002 painting, Peyton’s signature handling of oil paint—fluid, radiant, and emotionally-charged—is on full display. Her virtuoso technique balances precision and spontaneity in a way that draws back to a tradition of portraiture stemming from artists such as Édouard Manet and Edgard Degas: translucent layers of colour coalesce into Sweeney’s pale facial features, while looser strokes animate the vivid space around him. The result is a portrait suspended between immediacy and reverie, between observation and idealization. As the artist once explained,

“It all begins with me. That’s my interest. But I’m very inspired by people who are artists and musicians, people who touch me, people who help me feel my feelings, that describe my feelings in a way.”

This emotional connectivity—between painter and subject, viewer and sitter—underscores the lasting impact of Peyton’s portraits.

Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant, 1912, Leopold Museum, Vienna. Image: classicpaintings / Alamy Stock Photo

A defining characteristic of Peyton’s work is her celebration of beauty—not in a conventional sense, but as a condition of presence, sensitivity and style. In Sweeney, she found a subject who blurs the lines between masculine and feminine, personal and iconic. His delicate features and bold sartorial choices speak to Peyton’s fascination with androgyny and stylized self-presentation—qualities echoed in other recurring muses such as David Bowie and Jarvis Cocker and highly reminiscent of Egon Schiele’s evocative, edgy portraiture. Even her self-portrait, Live to Ride (E.P.), painted in 2003 and located in the Whitney Museum’s collection, presents a stylistically standardized vision of the self, closely aligned with her rendition of Sweeney. Both figures occupy unknowable interiors, adorned in highly individualized clothing, their impenetrable stares leave much to be uncovered. In Spencer (Two Palms), Peyton does not simply render an individual: she conveys a moment, a mood and a relationship, steeped in both admiration and artistic communion.

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with the Red Hat, circa 1669, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Image: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.53

Spencer (Two Palms) embodies Peyton’s broader revival of figurative painting at the turn of the millennium. At a time when portraiture was often dismissed as nostalgic or apolitical, Peyton reasserted its relevance with portraits that were unapologetically emotional, often romantic and always attuned to the sensibilities of a generation. Art historian Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum in London, has noted that her portraits are ‘perceptive and psychologically penetrating’, focusing not just on likeness but on presence—whether painted from life, memory or a photograph. Though grounded in the personal, Peyton’s portraits transcend (auto)biography. In her rendering of Sweeney, we encounter not only a friend, but also a symbol of creative life and downtown culture. As such, Spencer (Two Palms) operates on multiple levels: as a document of a particular time and place, as a luminous object of painterly beauty and as an emblem of Peyton’s unique ability to capture one’s unmediated presence, beyond mere surface likeness.

Liam & Noel, 1996

Sotheby’s London: 24 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
GBP 1,992,000 / USD 2,729,040

Liam & Noel | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Liam & Noel, 1996
Oil on board
66.5 x 56.5 cm (26 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches)
Signed, titled Liam + Noel (Gallagher) and dated 1996 (on the reverse)

Elizabeth Peyton’s electric Liam + Noel (Gallagher) is among the most ambitious and psychologically nuanced portraits the artist produced of the Britpop era, capturing the Oasis frontmen at the apex of their fame and cultural potency. Painted in 1996, the work belongs to a pivotal series in Peyton’s oeuvre, created in the wake of the band’s meteoric rise and against the backdrop of a moment that came to define British cultural identity. Executed in the aftermath of Oasis’s record-breaking concerts at Knebworth Park – in which 250,000 tickets were sold within 24 hours amid a staggering 2.5 million applicants – the present work reflects not only the fervor surrounding the band, but also Peyton’s singular ability to capture the psychological undertow behind public image.

“Making art is making something live forever. Human beings especially – we can’t hold on to them in any way. Painting is a way of holding onto things and making things go on through time.”

Elizabeth Peyton Liam & Noel, Loch Lomond, 1997 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art © Elizabeth Peyton

As Britpop ascended to global prominence, Oasis occupied a central role, their success marking a transatlantic shift in musical identity at a time when British art was dominated by the provocative rise of the Young British Artists. Released in the Autumn of 1995, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? had catapulted to number one in the United Kingdom and number four in the United States, where it remained in the charts for ten consecutive weeks, propelling the group to international stardom and embedding the Gallaghers into the mythology of British music. That another painting of the Gallagher brothers is held in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, underscores the lasting institutional significance of Peyton’s motif, and lasting cultural weight of a moment when music, art, and celebrity fused to define the spirit of the 1990s.

Noel and Liam Gallagher photographed in London, 1995. © Stefan De Batselier 2025

Peyton’s portrait offers a compelling counterpoint to the widely circulated media narratives of the brothers as combative and volatile. Rather than foregrounding their notoriety, the painting frames Liam and Noel in a moment of intimacy and repose. Based on a promotional image by the late Belgian photographer Stefan De Batselier, the composition features the two brothers posed in casual attire – an oversized tracksuit and collared shirt – encapsulating the working-class cool that became a hallmark of the Oasis aesthetic. Yet Peyton’s translation of this promotional imagery transcends its source: through her luminous palette, diaphanous brushwork, and refined sense of composition, the portrait transforms an image of celebrity into a poetic meditation on kinship, fame, and vulnerability.

Rendered with Peyton’s signature economy of line and exquisite mark making, the brothers appear almost indistinguishable; mirroring each other in their matching haircuts, aquiline profiles, and delicately flushed complexions. Liam’s chin rests gently on Noel’s shoulder, a pose of physical proximity and emotional ambiguity that destabilises their hard-edged public personas. In Peyton’s vision, they are not rock stars but siblings: elfin, tender, and introspective. As art critic Jon Savage has observed, an essential dimension of Peyton’s practice lies in her ability to inhabit the space between public persona and private self, between the abstraction of the icon and the raw intimacy of the human subject. “An unashamed fan,” Savage writes, Peyton applies “an idiosyncratic, feminine gaze” to the often hypermasculine figures of contemporary pop, inviting the viewer to encounter these icons not as caricatures, but as individuals caught in the tensions of visibility and myth. (John Savage, “Boys Keep Swinging, Elizabeth Peyton,” Frieze, November – December 1996 (online))

This duality between projection and interiority is central to the potency of Liam + Noel (Gallagher). At the time of its making, the brothers’ increasingly strained relationship had become tabloid fodder, a counterpoint to their musical success. Peyton subtly channels this undercurrent of discord: though the painting depicts a moment of connection, it is laden with the knowledge of fracture to come. The delicacy of Peyton’s brushwork and the almost translucent rendering of the figures serve to heighten this emotional tension, creating a visual atmosphere that is as ephemeral as it is evocative.

Throughout art history, the double portrait has served as a powerful site for exploring relationships: familial, fraternal, romantic, and psychological. Peyton’s Liam + Noel (Gallagher) certainly participates in this lineage. From Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait (1434) and Frida Kahlo’s The Two Fridas (1939) to David Hockney’s Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy (1968), the format offers a unique lens through which to examine identity not as singular, but as relational. Artists utilizing this device have continued to foreground intimacy and psychological nuance, probing the subtle tensions and affections between sitters. Andy Warhol reimagined the double portrait through radically different means: his screen-printed images emphasized surface and repetition, reducing figures to icons. In contrast to Warhol’s cool detachment, Peyton’s approach is unabashedly emotional, suffused with a fan’s devotion and an artist’s eye for transformative detail. In her hands, stardom becomes something fragile, luminous, and deeply human.

Liam + Noel (Gallagher) occupies a critical place within Peyton’s pantheon of muses, which includes both cultural legends – Kurt Cobain, Jarvis Cocker, Sid Vicious, David Bowie – and historical figures such as Ludwig II and Napoleon. Painting her friends and public figures with equal reverence, Peyton enacts a quiet but radical flattening of social hierarchy. Her portraits suggest not only who is worthy of depiction, but how. Indeed, the icon in pop culture is never static; it evolves through successive acts of reinvention and reinterpretation. Ahead of their eagerly anticipated world tour, due to kick off in July this summer, Peyton’s Liam + Noel (Gallagher) captures one such moment – poised on the edge of change, still radiant in its immediacy. In doing so, the work affirms Peyton’s singular position as one of the most perceptive chroniclers of fame and cultural mythology.

Jarvis and Liam Smoking, 1997

Christie’s New-York: 14 May 2025
Estimated: USD 800,000 – 1,200,000
USD 1,623,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Jarvis and Liam Smoking | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Jarvis and Liam Smoking, 1997
Oil on canvas
12 1/8 x 9 1/8 inches (30.8 x 23.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Jarvis and Liam Smoking 1997 Elizabeth Peyton’ (on the overlap)

In deft, fluid brushstrokes, Elizabeth Peyton has captured a fleeting moment of intimacy between two musicians at the height of their fame. Painted in 1997—two years after her acclaimed 1995 solo exhibition at Gavin Brown’s enterprise in New York, which itself followed on the heels of the artist’s debut 1993 solo show at the Chelsea Hotel, New York—Jarvis and Liam Smoking is a quintessential example of the portraits that “helped melt the ice that had formed around painting in the early 1990s” (J. Saltz, “Red Lipped Royals”, Artnet magazine, 16 April 1999).

Jarvis and Liam Smoking unites two men–Jarvis Cocker and Liam Gallagher–who helped define the Brit Pop era. By then, Gallagher’s band Oasis had achieved enormous success with their second album, What’s the Story (Morning Glory)?, which entered the UK charts at number one in October 1995 and did not leave the top three for seven months. In 1996, it won Best British Album at the Brit Awards. At that same award ceremony, Jarvis Cocker, the frontman of Pulp, invaded the stage while Michael Jackson was singing to protest the performance—an act that Noel Gallagher, Liam’s brother and bandmate, publicly supported.

Andy Warhol, Double Elvis [Elvis IV] [Ferus Type], 1963.
© 2025 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS).

“I’m interested in making pictures of artists whose work inspires me.”

In an interview with Cocker in 2008, she told him that she decided to paint him after his act of protest at the Brit Awards.

“There aren’t many people who stand up, whether it be in culture or politics, and say: “Listen, this is dumb. It doesn’t have to be like this.” After that awards show, I made a painting of you getting out of jail because I thought what you did was so heroic.”

Giorgione, Double Portrait, circa 1502. Castel Sant’Angelo, Rome.

She does not make preparatory sketches before beginning a painting, meaning that the energy and spontaneity that arise from the painting process are retained, resulting in work that is vivid and alive. In this way, the formal qualities of Jarvis and Liam Smoking further underline her tender reverence for her subjects, as well as the beauty of the ephemeral moment that it captures.

Kurt (sunglasses), 1995

Phillips New-York: 19 November 2024
Estimated: USD 600,000 – 800,000
USD 2,359,000

Elizabeth Peyton – Modern & Contempo… Lot 3 November 2024 | Phillips

Elizabeth Peyton’s Kurt (sunglasses), 1995, is an exquisitely rendered oil on canvas that exemplifies her ability to evoke emotional depth through intimate depictions of larger-than-life figures. Part of a series of portraits of Kurt Cobain, the iconic frontman of Nirvana and a defining figure of the 1990s grunge movement, the work reflects Peyton’s enduring fascination with fame and vulnerability. Painted in the year following his tragic suicide, Cobain—symbolizing both cultural rebellion and deep personal fragility—becomes a vessel through which Peyton merges emotional intimacy with iconic status. Known for her luminous portrayals that blend personal connection with celebrity allure, Peyton captures the essence of the rocker’s anti-establishment persona with a careful, tender execution.

“I guess what I’m interested in is the quality of my subjects being able to be themselves while occupying this extreme role in the public imagination. You can see their will, and that’s incredibly beautiful.”

Kurt Cobain at MTV’s Live and Loud, Pier 48, Seattle, WA, Dec. 13, 1993. Photograph by Alice Wheeler. Image: Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle

Drawing from historical influences and photographic inspirations, Kurt (sunglasses) invites viewers into a private realm where personal narrative and cultural image coalesce, marking a pivotal shift in Peyton’s career from historical figures to contemporary pop icons. Although not exhibited, this portrait of Cobain emerged alongside Peyton’s pivotal 1995 solo exhibition at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in SoHo, which showcased a series of related works. The show, which received high-profile reviews from The New York Times and Artforum, launched Peyton’s career and established her as a leading figure in the revival of figurative painting, steering art away from the academic theory that had dominated the 1980s. Other examples from this foundational series reside in prestigious collections, including the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, The Brant Foundation in Greenwich, the Boros Collection in Berlin, and the Burger Collection in Hong Kong.

“People who are good at what they do often become well known, and I’m interested in making pictures of artists whose work inspires me.”

Peyton often uses photographs as references for her portraits, selecting subjects who captivate her for their cultural impact and emotional depth. In Kurt (sunglasses), the composition closely resembles Alice Wheeler’s well-known photograph of Kurt Cobain, taken during MTV’s Live and Loud performance in Seattle on December 13, 1993. In this image, Cobain, adorned with his iconic Christian Roth oval-shaped sunglasses and a festive garland of multi-colored Christmas tinsel, embodies the glamorous yet troubled rock star persona, exuding confidence while navigating the mounting pressures of fame and personal turmoil. Peyton reinterprets this moment with her signature soft brushstrokes, transforming the photograph into an intimate painting that merges Cobain’s public persona with the vulnerability that lies beneath, highlighting the emotional complexity at the core of her work.

 John Singer Sargent, Dr. Pozzi at Home, 1881. The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Image: Bridgeman Images

In Kurt (sunglasses), Peyton invites the viewer into a close, personal engagement with the subject. The painting’s modest scale further encourages familiarity, underscoring the personal and reflective nature of Peyton’s portrayal, which stands in stark contrast to the typical veneer of glamor associated with rock stardom. Her loose, gestural brushstrokes create a sense of immediacy, heightening the emotional intensity of the portrait while retaining the sense of a fleeting, unguarded moment. This approach—letting the paint streak and smear, alternately building up and thinning out in a push-pull between saturation and transparency—mirrors Cobain’s shifting personas and the contradictions he embodied: a symbol of rebellion and raw aggression whose music captured the angst of an entire generation, yet also a figure of private fragility, expressed through his terse, darkly humorous lyrics.

As is typical in much of her portraiture, the figure embodies an androgynous archetype of Peyton’s style, featuring a blood-touched pout, carefully delineated cupid’s bow, and a waifish look of easily bruised youth. A bold Hockney-esque use of color intensifies the sensation within the work, reflecting the saturation of her vision. In Kurt (sunglasses), Peyton aligns Cobain’s lips with the cherry-red hue of his signature frames, creating a striking contrast against the delicately rendered softness of his facial features and the relaxed contours of his golden hair. Her deft handling of light and shadow imparts a profound interior complexity to the portrait. As Cobain’s clothing and the background dissolve into an expanse of red and shadow, a gentle glow envelops his face and neck, infusing the image with a dreamy, almost ethereal quality. Recalling a rich tradition of portraiture, from John Singer Sargent to Sir John Everett Millais, Peyton’s practice similarly seeks to capture intrinsic human beauty.

Sid Vicious Arrested, Chelsea Hotel, 1998

Sotheby’s New-York: 15 November 2023
Estimated: USD 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
USD 2,238,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Sid Vicious Arrested, Chelsea Hotel | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Sid Vicious Arrested, Chelsea Hotel, 1998
Oil on canvas
40×30 inches (101.5 x 76 cm)
Initialed, titled and variously inscribed (on the overlap)

Portraits from the Art World

Franz in Hamburg, 1995

Sotheby’s Milan: 26 November 2025
Estimated: EUR 100,000 – 150,000
EUR 107,950 / USD 124,845

Franz in Hamburg | Modern and Contemporary Art | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Franz in Hamburg, 1995
Oil on board
7 1/8 x 4 1/8 inches (18×10 cm)
Signed, dated 1995 and inscribed FRANZ ACKERMAN on the reverse

In 1995, Elizabeth Peyton made her debut at the Venice Biennale, and in that same year she began portraying figures from contemporary life alongside her historical and literary subjects. Among her new subjects were Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious and David Hockney. She also produced several portraits of the German artist Franz Ackermann, of which the present work is an example.

Her paintings are intimate and informal in tone, following the approach pioneered by Hockney, and they often contain a hint of voyeurism. Peyton portrays Franz away from the spotlight, managing to capture everyday gestures and attitudes—for example, as he walks through the streets of Hamburg—rather than the aura of celebrity.

Alex (Alex Katz) Winter 2012, 2012

Phillips New-York: 20 November 2024
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 400,000
USD 304,800

Elizabeth Peyton – Modern & Contem… Lot 318 November 2024 | Phillips

Painted in 2012, Alex (Alex Katz), Winter 2012 is a carefully articulated yet supremely expressive example of Elizabeth Peyton’s career-long exploration of portraiture. Typical of her practice, the present work is executed in a small-scale format, creating an aesthetic immediacy that captures an otherwise fleeting moment in time. A portrait of fellow painter Alex Katz, the present work belongs to a rich tradition of artists painting other artists. Katz stares back at the viewer, sitting cross-legged and arms folded in a patterned armchair, seemingly uncomfortable in his unusual position as a painting’s subject. As in her other portraits, Peyton employs a characteristically light-filled palette and skilful blending of fluid line here, eschewing perspectival naturalism and instead rendering form with spare detail and broad strokes. Focusing squarely on her subject’s face Peyton uses delicate and overlapping washes of translucent paint to create form and expression. The result is a captivating image that fluidly draws on a range of painting traditions, from non finito Renaissance works to the stylisation of Viennese Secession artists. This formal and textural juxtaposition between her sitter’s face and body reflects a broader oscillation between emotive, psychological realism and painterly abstraction, a facet of her practice that marks Peyton as one of the most precise and empathetic figurative painters of today.

In this work, the figure of Katz is simultaneously elusive yet intensely present, a hallmark of Peyton’s conceptual kind of contemporary realism. At their core, Peyton’s portraits are paintings of images of people as humans. She negotiates and motivates this formal and conceptual slippage, placing emphasis on direct observation and its translation to the painted surface in a manner akin to other contemporary artists such as Michaël Borremans. Unlike her Belgian counterpart, however, Peyton’s subjects are grounded by a humanising realism. She affords an informal universality to her figures that belies their celebrity or social status, rendering them almost knowable. Here, she sets Katz’s richly depicted yet subtly nuanced face against the coolness of exposed canvas and sparse outlines, eliminating any cultural or symbolic associations. The figure’s casual pose is matched by the relaxed brushwork and mark-making, resulting in a poignant and mesmerising composition founded in Peyton’s intimate gaze and empathy towards her subject.

Édouard Manet, Le Repos, circa 1871, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence 

In many ways, Alex Katz is a uniquely apposite artistic touchstone for Elizabeth Peyton. Both primarily portraitists, their works tend towards a bold simplicity and heighted palette with a flattened perspective and unusual, dramatic cropping. Rather than illustrating a scene in a narrative manner, they both seek to capture a mood or moment, seeking intimacy in the familiar faces of partners in the case of Katz, or in press cuttings and photographs of celebrities and historical figures favored by Peyton. Just as in Édouard Manet’s tender depictions of Berthe Morisot, or Lucian Freud’s famous portrait of David Hockney, the act of depicting another artist is loaded with significance. Simultaneously collaborative yet inherently imbalanced, artist and sitter are linked by trust and empathy. For Peyton, this is a prerequisite for all her portraits and her works:

“I just have a feeling of urgency that I want to make a picture of somebody. Probably because I’m very inspired by them or there is something I really want to know about or understand in them. So, fascination? Yes. Admiration? Yes. But also curiosity — I get fascinated by what people are doing and what they’re making and how it’s what I need at that moment.”

In this way, her works are defined by an unironic treatment and romanticized realism, occupying an innovative niche within contemporary painting.

Martin, 1998

Sotheby’s London: 14 October 2022
Estimated: GBP 400,000 – 600,000
GBP 730,800 / USD 819,282

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Martin | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Martin, 1998
Oil on MDF
11 1/8 x 14 1/8 inches (28.2 by 36 cm.)
Titled Martin, dated November 1998 and variously inscribed (on the reverse)

Burkhard Riemscheider, 1995

Phillips New York: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 450,000 – 650,000
USD 567,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Burkhard Riemschneider | Phillips (phillips.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Burkhard Riemschneider, 1995
Oil on board
17 1/8 by 14 1/8 in. (43.5 x 35.9 cm)
signed, titled and dated “BURKHARD RIEMSCHNEIDER Elizabeth Peyton 1995” on the reverse

Elizabeth Peyton refers to her work as “pictures of people” rather than portraits. This humble tone reflects the artist’s casually brilliant style of intimate, straightforward paintings of friends and cultural figures. Burkhard Riemschneider, 1995, depicts the eponymous gallerist who, with Tim Neuger, opened the gallery Neugerriemschneider in Berlin just the year prior. Riemschneider began representing Peyton the year this work was created, and his expressive likeness responds to the close relationship between two young people who had begun to achieve early professional success in the field.

Riemschneider ’s delicate features and cool androgyny capture the cultural zeitgeist of the 1990s. The cropped composition further reflects the aesthetics of the decade’s youth culture, drawing influence from the close-up photographs featured in magazines like Cream. Mirroring this style, Peyton painted her sitter from a snapshot, isolating his face from any distinct background. The lush, rosy backdrop heightens Riemschneider’s glowing ruby lips and attenuated pale skin. As is exemplary of Peyton’s work, the male subject also embodies a graceful femininity. In the word of Peyton, “There’s something about a particular kind of male sexuality that has always appealed to me: straight boys who aren’t afraid of being feminine, who aren’t afraid to be very open about the whole thing.”

Édouard Manet, Plum Brandy, c. 1877, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Image: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1971.85.1

Burkhard Riemschneider is an important example amongst several paintings Peyton made of art world figures– other subjects have included Matthew Barney, Gavin Brown and her former husband Rirkrit Tiravanija. Her early career depictions of Marc Jacobs, Queen Elizabeth and musicians Kurt Cobain, Liam Gallagher and Sid Vicious distinctly capture the 1990s; curator Laura Hoptman has recognized Peyton as her generation’s “painter of modern life,” a distinction referencing Charles Baudelaire’s term to describe Édouard Manet in the late nineteenth century. Through her tender portraits and curated cast of era-defining subjects, Peyton can be understood as a fin de siècle painter for the 20th century, walking in the footsteps of such masters as Manet. Their respective cultural observation and mastery of portraiture evident in comparison with works like Plum Brandy, circa 1877. The present example further exhibits Peyton’s genius as a colorist. Painted with diluted oil paint and finished with a varnished, glossy surface, the work’s subject glows with a seeming effortlessness against a backdrop awash in peach and coral. With this brilliance packed into such an intimate scale, it is no wonder her work so often elicits the description “jewel-like,” as expressed by curators Laura Hoptman, who organized Peyton’s mid-career retrospective at the New Museum in New York in 2008, and Chrissie Iles, who selected Peyton for the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Roberta Smith has likewise used the phrase, further praising the works’ “incandescent glow” and “offhand intensity.”

Painted in 2015, Julie (Julie Mehretu) is a powerful, luminous portrait by Elizabeth Peyton. The subject is Peyton’s fellow artist Julie Mehretu, who rose to acclaim in the early 2000s for her vast, geometric abstract works that conjure overlaid complexities of history and place: the two are near-contemporaries, and both work in New York. Joining the pantheon of pop icons, rockstars, friends and heroes who people Peyton’s oeuvre, Mehretu takes her place among a select company of female artists she has depicted, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Camille Claudel and Isa Genzken. Peyton captures Mehretu as a vision of poised intelligence, gazing directly out at the viewer. She grips what might be a bunch of leaves in her hand. Flashes of gold and inky shadows enrich her face, while other areas are more loosely worked, allowing light to break through from the bright white ground beneath. This radiance is typical of Peyton’s technique: she applies diluted oil paint to a painted ground that she has sanded glassy-smooth, creating pellucid, dappled washes of color that glide across the surface. In deft, fluid strokes, Mehretu is made brilliantly present. Many of her works are based on found photographs, focusing on images mediated through history and the public eye: she rose to acclaim in the mid-1990s with an installation that juxtaposed idealised drawings of figures like Napoleon Bonaparte alongside pale, incandescent pictures of the recently-deceased Kurt Cobain. Later paintings like the present are often derived from Peyton’s own photographs, setting their subjects’ charisma in a more direct emotional key. Her depiction of Mehretu—composed, determined and fiercely self-aware—conveys her sitter’s personal magic with the keen sensitivity of one artist understanding another.

Born of far more than a devotion to celebrity, Peyton’s works traverse centuries to express an unironic fascination with people who define their moment, and who inspire her through their art. Her vision is achingly pure, and alive with a literary, almost romantic sensibility: working on an intimate scale, she believes that ‘little things are more powerful because they’re more honest, so people feel them more strongly’ (E. Peyton, quoted in J. Cocker, ‘Elizabeth Peyton’, Interview Magazine, 26 November 2008). Julie (Julie Mehretu) affirms this belief. Born of a moment of recognition between two great painters of our time, it seizes Mehretu’s essence with gem-like clarity.

“With Balzac, so many things appealed to me…One, he is an artist above all things. And in his novels, artists were the ones who could move in and around society. The portraits that he made of people inspired me, in my brain: they told me how I wanted to make portraits.”

Max, 1996

Sotheby’s New-York: 14 May 2026
Estimated: USD 800,000 – 1,200,000
USD 768,000

Elizabeth Peyton | Max | The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction |

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Max, 1996
Oil on board
12×9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Signed, titled Maxie August 1996 and dated 1996 (on the reverse)

A deeply personal, intimate portrait of her close friend and gallerist Gavin Brown’s son, Max, from 1996, reveals Elizabeth Peyton’s artistic genius in all its subdued, yet piercingly vivid, nature. Testament to the high regard in which she held his father, her painted tribute does not portray the child with the expected virtues of playfulness and naivete, but rather a knowing, delicate representation of the child. Complete with a resolute, unwavering gaze; one of confidence and brash attitude, Max offers a quiet, enigmatic portrayal of the child from Peyton’s highly coveted mid-90s working period, capturing the best of her genius with a deeply personal muse.

Gerhard Richter, Betty, 1988. Saint Louis Art Museum. Art © 2026 Gerhard Richter

Peyton’s artistic genesis took shape at the Chelsea Hotel in 1993—a place already steeped in decades of creative breakthroughs. By staging an exhibition of her latest drawings in room 828, she deliberately inserted herself into that lineage. The work wasn’t simply on display; viewers had to request a key from the front desk, turning the act of seeing into a quiet initiation. It was there that she met Gavin Brown, the gallerist who would become both a close friend and a catalyst for her remarkably swift rise.

“Human beings are very avant-garde, and are as worthy a contemporary subject as anything else.”

Soon after, Peyton shifted from drawing to painting, focusing on portraits of the people who captivated her—friends, cultural figures, and personal heroes alike. As she put it: “I guess I like looking at people when they’re finding their way, living up to themselves. It’s something that looks spectacular.” (The artist quoted in: Steve Lefreniere and Elizabeth Peyton, Elizabeth Peyton, New York 2005, p. 253) Her early critical reception was far from unanimous. One New York Times review described her portraits as “beautiful in an awkward, self-effacing way,” (Roberta Smith, “ART REVIEW: Blood and Punk Royalty to Grunge Royalty,” The New York Times, 24 March 1995, p. C30) capturing both their intimacy and their perceived fragility. Gavin Brown, however, defended her work with conviction, and his clarity of vision and steady advocacy proved pivotal, helping propel Peyton into broader recognition and forming the foundation of their enduring professional partnership. Within that context, Peyton’s decision to paint Brown’s son, Max, reads as both reciprocal and deeply personal—a gesture that transforms portraiture into a record of trust and friendship, as much as artistic observation.

Left: Alice Neel, Mady, 1942. Private Collection. Sold at Sotheby’s New York in November 2021 for $1.8 million. Art © 2026 Alice Neel. Right: Pablo Picasso, Seated Harlequin, 1901. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY. Art © 2026 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Set against a moody plum backdrop, Peyton paints Max with a baby blue shirt that brings out the boy’s intensely striking gaze, looking out at the viewer with a glare that reads – humorously – disappointed. Executed with a few, thinly impastoed brush strokes, the boy’s right arm extends out bracing himself, while compositionally, it expertly points the viewer directly to his face. With such a casual, unpretentious feel to the portrait, the viewer isn’t prepared for Max’s captivating visage: bright blue eyes that confront you resolutely; red lips that smirk ever so slightly, and soft skin that appears youthful, though not angelic. Sweeping beneath his eyes are the familiar dark crescents of tiredness. Just as with all of her portraits, Peyton took her time with Max’s face, imbuing a sensitivity to emotion and verisimilitude with a few dancing strokes. With this magnificent depiction of the boy as human and as hero, Max holds a pivotal place in Peyton’s body of work. Through her highly acclaimed portraits, Peyton presents a modest, yet intense view of her subjects. Whether close friends or front-page celebrities, she captures her subjects with gleaming intensity and intimate knowing, stripping portraiture back to its most personal ethos. In doing so, she inserts herself as artist – and her subjects as art – into a longer lineage of art history and, ultimately, humanity. Quoting Shakespeare’s 55th sonnet in her 2001 book, Prince Eagle, she provides an epigraph for her own oeuvre, explaining to her portrait subjects: “But you shall shine more bright in these contents / Than unswept stone.” Max embraces these emblematic words; a deeply intimate portrait of a child not set in the context of his youth, but seen first and foremost as a human, entitled to opinions and understanding just as the rest of Peyton’s older subjects. Max shines brightly in Peyton’s oeuvre as an exquisite legacy of the artist and subject – containing multitudes of her artistic genius and, more importantly, as a loving monument to her friendship with Gavin Brown.

Tony Reading (Silver Tony), 1999

Works from the Collection of Byron R. Meyer with Partial Proceeds
to Benefit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Sotheby’s New-York: 19 November 2025
Estimated: USD 500,000 – 700,000
USD 457,200

Tony Reading (Silver Tony) | Contemporary Day Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (b. 1965)
Tony Reading (Silver Tony), 1999
Oil on MDF
14 1/4 x 11 inches (36.2 x 27.9 cm)
Signed, titled, dated 1999 and inscribed Tony Just (age 30) (on the reverse)

Infused with luminous intimacy and painterly tenderness, Elizabeth Peyton’s Tony Reading (Silver Tony) from 1999 exemplifies the artist’s celebrated portraits of the late 1990s, a period that cemented her reputation as one of the most original figurative painters of her generation. Rendered in radiant oil on board, the work captures Tony Just—Peyton’s longtime muse and former partner—absorbed in the quiet act of reading. With its close-cropped composition, diaphanous brushwork, and jewel-like palette, the painting transforms an ordinary moment into a timeless meditation on beauty, presence, and the interiority of her sitters.

“Human beings are very avant-garde,
and are as worthy a contemporary subject as anything else.”

In Tony Reading (Silver Tony), Peyton depicts her subject in a downward pose, head bent and gaze directed toward the page. The angle denies full access to Tony’s features, yet his presence radiates through the curve of his hair, the tilt of his head, and the flush of red at his lips. Purple, silver, and pale lavender tones animate the composition, while quick strokes of white and brown catch the light across his clothing and hair. The book, rendered in flashes of crimson and cream, punctuates the canvas with vivid contrast, anchoring the sitter’s attention and ours. The entire scene hums with an atmosphere of reverie—an unguarded glimpse into a moment of thought and concentration, preserved with painterly delicacy.

Tony was among Peyton’s most frequent subjects in the 1990s, appearing in multiple canvases that traced the intimacy of their friendship. Unlike her portraits of public figures such as Kurt Cobain, Jarvis Cocker, or Liam and Noel Gallagher, Peyton’s images of Tony feel distinctly personal, affirming her interest in portraying not only cultural icons but also those closest to her. In Tony Reading (Silver Tony), the sitter is not posed for spectacle but caught in a private moment. The absence of eye contact reinforces the sense of introspection, as if the viewer is quietly witnessing a fleeting instant of everyday life, elevated by the act of painting into permanence.

The painting reflects Peyton’s distinct approach to portraiture, in which likeness is less about verisimilitude than about emotional presence. Her brushwork is fluid, at times dissolving contours into washes of color, at others sharpening them into luminous accents. The result is a sense of lightness and immediacy: one feels the painting was executed in a single breath, even as its composition is carefully considered. Peyton’s technique owes as much to the lyricism of nineteenth-century painters like Édouard Manet and Édouard Vuillard as it does to the immediacy of contemporary photography and the affective charge of fan culture.

By the late 1990s, Peyton had achieved widespread recognition for her portraits of cultural figures—often musicians, writers, and artists—who represented not only celebrity but also the emotional texture of their era. Yet works such as Tony Reading (Silver Tony) reveal that at the core of her practice lies a fascination with intimacy and friendship. Whether depicting a rock star or a close companion, Peyton renders her sitters with the same tenderness, blurring the line between public and private, icon and individual.

The choice of reading as subject further underscores Peyton’s interest in interiority. Books recur in her work as symbols of reflection and selfhood, marking moments of pause rather than performance. In Tony Reading (Silver Tony), the sitter’s absorption creates a sense of distance, but it is a distance filled with empathy. The painting is less a record of Tony’s likeness than of his state of being—attentive, contemplative, alive in a moment of solitude.

Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant, 1912, Leopold Museum, Vienna.

Painted in 1999, the work belongs to a pivotal moment in Peyton’s career. Having gained international attention through her early exhibitions in New York and London, she was increasingly recognized for her ability to merge the sensibility of Old Master portraiture with the visual culture of her own time. Tony Reading (Silver Tony) demonstrates this synthesis with particular clarity: its palette and brushwork echo the modernist intimism of Henri Matisse or Pierre Bonnard, while its subject and immediacy speak to a late-twentieth-century context of friendship, fandom, and personal connection. Ultimately, the power of Tony Reading (Silver Tony) lies in its ability to render the ordinary extraordinary. A simple act of reading becomes a subject of luminous attention, transfigured through Peyton’s brush into an emblem of beauty and presence. The painting affirms her singular place within contemporary portraiture: an artist who finds grandeur not in spectacle but in the fragile, fleeting moments of life, preserved forever in the charged surface of paint.

Torino (Tony) Sept. 99, 1999

Phillips London: 10 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 300,000 – 500,000
GBP 431,800 / USD 564,205

Elizabeth Peyton – Modern & Contempor… Lot 7 October 2024 | Phillips

Stunningly executed in luminous, jewel-like shades of deep reds, pinks, and rich tones of black and blue, Torino (Tony) Sept. 99 is an arresting early example of American artist Elizabeth Peyton’s unique contribution to contemporary portraiture. Taking as its subject Peyton’s lover and fellow artist Tony Just, the work exemplifies Peyton’s sensitive and emotionally charged approach to her material, typically revolving around the representation of close friends and familiar cultural icons borrowed from second-hand images. Fascinated by the fragile beauty of youth, Peyton’s tender and often small-scaled images of artists and musicians are among her best known and revered works, records not only of specific individuals and the cultural moment that they occupy but, more pressingly, of the profound emotional response that they draw from her.

“I’m very inspired by artists and musicians, people who touch me, people who help me feel my feelings.”

Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe – After Return from New Mexico, 1929, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 125th Anniversary Acquisition. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection, purchased with the gift (by exchange) of Dr. and Mrs. Paul Todd Makler, the Lynne and Harold Honickman Fund for Photography, the Alice Newton Osborn Fund, and the Lola Downin Peck Fund, with funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. John J. F. Sherrerd, Lynne and Harold Honickman, John J. Medveckis, and M. Todd Cooke, and gift of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation, 1997

Including notable historical characters, rock stars, and members of the Royal Family, Peyton has drawn on a wide array of visual sources including magazine clippings and press photographs in the composition of her portraits of well-known cultural figures. Often familiar, these images elicit a charge of recognition in the viewer, drawing out our own feelings towards her subjects. In her more intimate portraits of friends and family from her inner circle – of which the present work is a particularly powerful example – Peyton offers us a more personal vision, an invitation to engage directly with the artist on her own emotional frequency. Instead of second-hand and widely circulated press images, for these more intimate portraits Peyton draws on her own photographs, informal snapshots on 35 millimeter, polaroid, and digital cameras amassed over decades. In recent years, this aspect of Peyton’s practice has received increasing critical attention, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum even mounting an exhibition devoted to this vast archive of images in the 2008 exhibition Elizabeth Peyton: Portrait of an Artist. Drawing attention to this important dimension of Peyton’s practice, Torino (Tony) Sept. 99 belongs to a fascinating lineage of artists documenting the lives and loves of their innermost circle including Alfred Stieglitz, Lee Miller, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Peyton’s painted portraits of Just carry an emotional charge and are especially reminiscent of Stieglitz’s images of his partner and fellow artist Georgia O’Keeffe.

Left: Otto Dix, Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia Von Harden, 1926, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Image: Photo Josse/Scala, Florence, Artwork: © DACS 2024
Right: The present work

Following their first meeting at a party in the 1990s, Peyton immediately started drawing and painting Just in a variety of poses and settings.

“It really felt like I’d waited my entire life to meet Tony. He was magnetic. I wanted to look at him all the time.”

Peyton has recalled how Just initially reminded her of a young Napoleon – a favorite subject of her early painting – the two even travelling to France shortly after meeting to visit Fontainebleau where Napoleon had based himself before his ultimate exile in 1814. Photographs taken of Just on this trip would go on to form the basis of a series of portraits from the late 1990s and early 2000s, underscoring the centrality of these works in what would prove to be a pivotal period in Peyton’s career and personal life. Following her first institutional solo show in 1997 at the St. Louis Art Museum, Peyton was the subject of a staggering thirteen monographic exhibitions between 1998 and 2000, a remarkable record of the critical reception of her work in these early decades of her practice. Appearing here with delicate, elfin features, tousled hair, and an air of androgynous self-determination, ‘Torino’ epitomises the otherworldly sharp beauty that characterises Peyton’s most accomplished portraits. Although stylistically and emotionally distinct, in the rich palette, confident self-assured pose, and narrative charge of Torino (Tony) Sept. 99, Peyton seems to be drawing certain visual relationships to Otto Dix’s infamous 1926 portrait of androgynous beauty, Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden. This work similarly captured not only the mood of an epoch, but a new fascination with psychological interiority that resonates with the profound emotional character of Peyton’s most powerful portraits.

David, 1988-89

Christie’s London: 28 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 280,000 – 350,000
GBP 252,000 / USD 318,382

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), David | Christie’s (christies.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
David, 1988-89
Oil on panel
19 x 13 1/2 inches (48.3 x 34.3 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘David Elizabeth Peyton 1988 ? 1989 ?’ (on the reverse)

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner, held in the same collection since the early 1990s and never before seen in public, David (1988-1989) is a rare and exquisite early portrait by Elizabeth Peyton. Painted on panel—a resistant surface that brings Peyton’s deft, diaphanous brushstrokes to the fore—the young sitter appears in profile against a radiant blue backdrop. His fine, elfin features are conveyed in delicate detail, while loose lines and washes define his jacket and shirt. The work dates from the very dawn of Peyton’s career. She graduated from New York’s School of Visual Arts in 1987, and held her first solo exhibition a year later. The present owner shared a studio with Peyton in New York, and remembers the strength and surety of her vision from the start. With its luminous, unapologetic beauty, David declares her practice fully formed.

In 1993, with an intimate show of drawings held in a suite at the Chelsea Hotel, Peyton began an unlikely rise to acclaim. Her idealized, wistful pictures—depicting historical figures including Napoleon Bonaparte and King Ludwig II of Bavaria—caused a stir even at a time when figuration was out of fashion. In 1995, her pale, incandescent paintings of the recently-deceased Kurt Cobain caught the eye of critic Roberta Smith, who called them ‘part Abstract Expressionist, part Renaissance miniature, with a touch of Pre-Raphaelite romanticism’, and admired their ‘offhand intensity’ (R. Smith, ‘Blood and Punk Royalty to Grunge Royalty’, The New York Times, 24 March 1995, section C, p. 30). To this day, Peyton is enraptured by people who change or define the time they live in. Her subjects, often painted from photographs, range from rock stars and royalty to inspirational friends and acquaintances. They all share the imprint of her fascination, and the distinctive glow of her touch. Fluid and immediate, her paint glides across its hard support with a vital sense of movement. She works on gessoed panels that are sanded to jewel-like smoothness, and even painted some early works on found glass.

A romantic, literary sensibility pervades Peyton’s paintings, which often catch their sitters in moments of contemplation. She was inspired early on by the fin-de-siècle worlds of Marcel Proust and Henry James, and, in 1986, by a revelatory John Singer Sargent show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. ‘It seemed like he painted in a way that was so fast, so open, and so abstract that it was almost a miracle that the paint somehow landed on the canvas to make a portrait’, she later recalled. ‘… The show coincided with a moment in the mid-1980s when beauty—and painting—was being questioned in critical theory, so it was reassuring to see this huge body of work that celebrated both of those things’ (E. Peyton, ‘Elizabeth Peyton on John Singer Sargent’, Harper’s Bazaar, March 2015, p. 344). In David, as a charismatic smile plays across the subject’s lips, the stage is set for a practice that would keep the painting of beauty alive for years to come.

Sara, 1996

Sotheby’s London: 29 June 2021
Estimated: GBP 200,000 – 300,000
GBP 414,300 / USD 573,584

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Sara | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Sara, 1996
Oil on board
9 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches (23.4 x 18.4 cm)

“There is no separation for me between people I know through their music or photos and someone I know personally. The way I perceive them is very similar, in that there’s no difference between certain qualities that I find inspiring in them.”

GERHARD RICHTER, BETTY, 1988 / SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS
IMAGE/ARTWORK: © GERHARD RICHTER 2021

While Peyton’s figures retain their specificity – of a certain cultural moment, a certain social cache, and individual personality – they are transformed and made universal, suspended in time and space within Peyton’s imaginary realm. To this end, Peyton’s famous, infamous, and even relatively unknown subjects, command equally iconic status; indeed, through her paintings, Peyton’s subjects are made more luminous, more beautiful, and more dispassionate than they could ever be in real life. The devotional aesthetic of Peyton’s portraits has frequently been compared to Byzantine icon paintings, as well as the intimate studio portraiture of Nadar, Alfred Stieglitz and Robert Mapplethorpe. Each painting harbors a distinct narrative charge, laced with ambiguous strains of nostalgia, love, and vulnerability. Beautifully interweaving fact and fiction, Peyton successfully diminishes the traditional distance of portraiture and photography, seeking instead to enhance the inner vulnerabilities of her sitters through lush and expressive brushwork. In so doing Peyton marvelously blurs the lines between lived experience, memory and the imagination. Emerging at a time when figurative painting had been widely denounced, Peyton is today praised for reinvigorating portraiture in contemporary form, simultaneously portraying her subjects with an air close to veneration whilst imbuing them with a sense of comfortable familiarity. As she immerses the viewer into her pictorial code, Peyton skillfully invents a multisensorial aesthetic that combines the classicism of the Romantic era with the resolutely contemporary, an approach to image making that marks her out as among the most innovative and poetic artists of her generation.

Nude (Tony), 2001

Sotheby’s New York: 19 November 2021
Estimated: USD 180,000 – 250,000
USD 378,000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Nude (Tony) | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Nude (Tony), 2001
Oil on panel
6 1/8 x 8 1/8 inches (15.6 x 20.6 cm)
Signed twice with the artist’s monogram, titled and dated 2001 (on the reverse)

Other Paintings

Flowers, Lichtenstein, Parsifal, 2011

Christie’s New-York: 19 November 2025
Estimated: USD 500,000 – 700,000
USD 1,104,900

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965), Flowers, Lichtenstein, Parsifal | Christie’s

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Flowers, Lichtenstein, Parsifal, 2011
Oil on panel
12 1/8 x 9 1/8 inches (30.5 x 23 cm)

Elizabeth Peyton has long explored the intersections between painting, music, and the emotional permanence that binds them.

“Making art is making something live forever. Painting and art is a way of holding onto things and making things go on through time.”

That enduring transmission of feeling is at the heart of Peyton’s practice, and nowhere is it more vividly expressed than in Flowers, Lichtenstein, Parsifal (2011). Here, the artist unites three central strands of her oeuvre—portraiture, still life, and art-historical homage—into a single, deeply resonant image.

Rachel Ruysch, Still Life with Rose Branch, Beetle, and Bee, 1741. Kunstmuseum, Basel.

Painted in preparation for her landmark 2011 exhibition at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, which coincided with their production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, the work encapsulates Peyton’s fascination with the grand narratives and emotional intensity of opera. Immersing herself in Wagner’s music—what she describes as a “gigantic feat” of emotional storytelling—she sought to match its transcendence in paint.

In this intimate composition, the program for Parsifal, Wagner’s final opera, stands behind a vase of lilac anemones, whose delicate petals evoke both the fleeting nature of beauty and the operatic themes of love and mortality. The vase itself bears the coat of arms of Queen Elizabeth II, a subtle nod to another of Peyton’s recurring subjects: royalty.  Across her career, Peyton has portrayed monarchs and their family members with care and fascination. Here, only the word Elizabeth is visible—a wry, self-referential gesture that collapses the distance between artist and subject, painter and queen.

Left: Present lot illustrated (detail).
Right: Roy Lichtenstein, I KNOW HOW YOU MUST FEEL, BRAD!, 1963, Collection Mrs. Vera List, New York. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Above, Peyton introduces a fragment of Roy Lichtenstein’s preparatory sketch for I Know How You Must Feel, Brad… (1964), its Ben-Day dots reimagined through her fluid, expressive hand. The Pop master’s graphic language, Wagner’s mythic narrative, and the lush vitality of the floral still life coexist within a single frame—a portrait of artistic inheritance and emotional communion. In Flowers, Lichtenstein, Parsifal, Peyton transcends genre and subject, creating a meditation on beauty, devotion, and the sustaining dialogue between art forms across time.

Prints

WORK IN PROGRESS
WILL BE UPDATED SHORTLY

1. John and Jackie, 2000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
John and Jackie, 2000
Lithograph in colors on wove paper
Sheet: 24×19 inches (61 x 48.3 cm)
Edition: 350 + 10 AP (Artist’s Proofs)
Publisher: The Public Art Fund, New York
Printer: Derriere L’Etolie Studios, New York
Signed, dated and numbered in pencil

Phillips New York: 26 October 2023
Estimated: USD 1,500 – 2,500
USD 1,905
Signed, dated and numbered 7/350 in pencil

Phillips New York: 13 September 2023
Estimated: USD 1,500 – 2,500
USD 1,778
Signed, dated and numbered 123/350 in pencil 

Rago Art: 1 June 2023
Estimated: USD 2,000 – 3,000
USD 2,268
Signed, dated and numbered 36/350 in pencil

Heritage Auctions: 19 April 2023
Estimated: USD 2,000 – 3,000
USD 3,500
Signed, dated and numbered 162/350 in pencil 

Phillips New York: 21 October 2021
Estimated: USD 2,000 – 3,000
USD 4,032
Signed, dated and numbered 7/350 in pencil

Wright: 17 February 2021
Estimated: USD 4,000 – 6,000
USD 2,750
Signed, dated and numbered to lower right ‘261/350 Peyton 2000’

2. Prince Harry and Prince William, 2000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Prince Harry and Prince William, 2000
Lithograph printed in colors on wove paper
24×19 inches (61×48 cm)
Edition: 350
Publisher: The Public Art Fund, New-York
Signed, dated and titled in pencil

Shapiro Auctions: 27 January 2024
Estimated: USD 1,500 – 2,000
USD 1,430
Signed, dated and numbered 174/350

SBI Art Auction: 15 April 2023
Estimated: USD 747 – 1,121
USD 2,062
PP aside from ED. 350

LA Modern: 23 March 2023
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 1,500
USD 645
Signed, dated and numbered 334/350

Toomey & Co: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 1,500
USD 768
Signed, dated and numbered to lower right ‘261/350 Peyton 00’

Rago: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 1,500
USD 938
Signed, dated and numbered to lower right ‘336/350 Elizabeth Peyton 2000’

Sotheby’s New York: 3 October 2022
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 1,500
USD 1,260
Signed in pencil Elizabeth Peyton and inscribed PP 10/10 (lower center)

Heritage Auctions: 17 March 2021
Estimated: USD 1,500 – 2,500
USD 1,500
Signed, dated and numbered 117/350

3. Prince William, 2000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
Prince William, 2000
Lithograph in colors
24×18 inches (61×46 cm)
Edition: 350
Publisher: The Public Art Fund, New-York

Toomey & Co: 8 March 2023
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 1,500
USD 355
Signed, dated and numbered to lower left ‘222/350 Elizabeth Peyton 2000’

Toomey & Co: 11 January 2023
Estimated: USD 1,500 – 2,500
USD 1,310
Signed, dated and numbered to lower left ‘180/350 Elizabeth Peyton 2000’

RAGO: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 1,500
USD 1,024
Signed, dated and numbered to lower left ‘231/350 Elizabeth Peyton 2000’

LA Modern: 12 July 2022
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 1,500
USD 585
Signed, dated and numbered to lower left ‘167/350 Elizabeth Peyton 2000’

4. John, 2000

ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965)
John (John F. Kennedy, Jr. on Horseback), 2000
Lithograph on wove paper
Edition: 350 + 10 PP
Publisher: The Public Art Fund

Heritage Auctions: 21 June 2023
Estimated: USD 800 – 1,200
USD 500
Signed, numbered 236/350, and dated in pencil, lower right

Rago: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 1,500
USD 500
Signed, dated and numbered to lower right ‘174/350 Elizabeth Peyton 2000’

Sotheby’s New York: 3 October 2022
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 1,500
USD 630
Signed in pencil Elizabeth Peyton, dated 2000 and inscribed PP 10/10 (lower right)

LA Modern: 12 July 2022
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 1,500
USD 813
Signed, dated and numbered to lower right ‘119/350 Elizabeth Peyton 2000’

Heritage Auctions: 15 September 2021
Estimated: USD 1,500 – 2,500
USD 1,562
Signed, numbered 195/350, and dated in pencil lower right