Sur la Terrasse was painted in London from photographs taken at the Mamounia hotel in Marrakech, and Schlesinger also posed for Hockney a few times in London for details. In the work, the artist is looking out from the inside of a darkened hotel room on a lonely scene of Schlesinger leaning over the balcony.
“Sur la Terrasse is an extraordinarily beautiful work, which provides a window into the conclusion of David Hockney’s relationship with his muse and longtime love, Peter Schlesinger,” Ana Maria Celis, head of Evening Sale, Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s said in a statement. “This work marks a momentous turning point in the artist’s personal and professional lives. The tenderness and nostalgia of this moment is unmistakable in Schlesinger’s position with his back facing the artist, as he looks into the wilds that lie beyond their hotel terrace in Marrakesh.”