Rare sale of David Hockney painting of beloved dog Stanley could fetch £2.5m

David Hockney adored his dachshunds Stanley and Boodgie and let them run riot – so much so that after one had an accident in the LA home of the actor Dennis Hopper, the painter is said to have quipped: “It’ll be dry in the morning, luv, and you can just pick it up.”

But Hockney did not just indulge his four-legged companions, he treated them as portrait subjects for a series of paintings, one of which is to be sold by Christie’s.