Art handlers display Hockney’s Early Morning, Sainte-Maxime at Christie's in London. Photograph: James Manning/PA

Early in the morning, Sainte-Maxime sold for roughly three times its lower estimate at auction in London

Nearly three times its lower estimate, a David Hockney painting of the sun rising over the Mediterranean was sold at auction for approximately £21 million.

The British artist's 1969 work Early Morning, Sainte-Maxime has been in a private collection for more than 30 years. According to the auction house Christie's, it was expected to sell for between £7m and £10m. However, after six minutes of private buyer bidding, it was sold.

To surpass the previous high for a Hockney painting, it still has a ways to go. Hockney is the most valuable living artist after the sale of Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) in 2018 for $90 million (£70 million at the time).

Hockney, 85, used a shot he took while visiting at Tony Richardson's house to create Early Morning, Sainte-Maxime. From the slopes above Saint-Tropez, where Richardson's home was situated, it was possible to see the port of Sainte-Maxime across the bay.

When Hockney and his then-partner Peter Schlesinger visited the home, they took advantage of the lengthy lunches by the pool and late-night gatherings with other creative types.

The Côte d'Azur was at the height of its glitz. Since Schlesinger was Hockney's great love, the image conveys a genuine feeling of satisfaction and joy. According to Katharine Arnold, Christie's director of postwar and contemporary art Europe, "You can feel the joy that he felt in painting."

She said that the "same light that Matisse and Picasso fell in love with" was the "magical light" of the scene that Hockney portrayed.

After experimenting with faxes, photocopies, and Polaroids in the past, Hockney has recently started utilizing an iPad to produce pictures.

Thanks to Harriet Sherwood at The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.