Christie's auction of The Collection of RB Kitaj

RB Kitaj (1932-2007) Photograph: Christie's Images

'The whole house was like Kitaj's studio,' said Pilar Ordovas, head of the post-war art department at Christie's Photograph: Christie's Images

'Most of these pictures were on his kitchen walls - it was the only room in the house that really had proper chairs, and a big table,' said Pilar Ordovas Photograph: Christie's Images

David Hockney with RB Kitaj. Hockney was best man at Kitaj's wedding in 1983 and Auerbach gave away the bride, artist Sandra Fischer, at the Jewish ceremony Photograph: Christie's Images

The sale will include the much-reproduced nude, Kitaj's 1980 Marynka Smoking. The work was laid out in Kitaj's home beside a selection of the books and catalogues which have used the painting on their covers Photograph: Christie's Images

Self-portrait in a convex mirror, 1982. Kitaj's own work went in and out of fashion: he once described himself as a 'well-paid misfit trudging down the zeitgeist road, and meeting all the art troops marching in the opposite direction - some of whom even wave genially to me' Photograph: Christie's Images

A sketch of Francis Bacon by Lucian Freud (1951). This is one of the most striking works, which Kitaj kept for over half a century, when the two men, who later fell out, were inseparable friends Photograph: Christie's Images

A view of the house. Kitaj just lived long enough to see one of his works fetch a world record price at a Christie's sale in June - £300,000 for his 1990 Greenwich Village, a gratifying 50% above the highest estimate. His collection is now expected to fetch £3m at the February sale Photograph: Christie's Images