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Armenian-American artist Arshile Gorky’s 1946 painting Charred Beloved I set a major record at Christie's 20th century art evening sale in New York on November 9.

The painting, made shortly after a fire in Gorky’s home that year in which he lost some 20 paintings, hammered at $20 million, its presale estimate, or $23.4 million with fees, ARTnews reported.

The painting was being sold by David Geffen, who had owned it for 30 years; it had a great provenance, including having been owned by publishing magnate S. I. Newhouse. Gorky’s previous record of $14 million was set in November 2018 by the 1944 painting Good Afternoon, Mrs. Lincoln, which was sold as part of the collection of Barney Ebsworth.

Marked by bold biomorphic forms at once suggestive and enigmatic, the canvas captures a pivotal moment at which, through great personal trial, the artist came into his defining style. Widely recognised as the last Surrealist and a proto-Abstract Expressionist, Gorky paved the way for a new American artform, Christie's says.

The painting was first exhibited in 1953 at New York’s Sidney Janis Gallery and later appeared in major museum shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim. One of the related canvases, Charred Beloved II, is held in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

The 1946 fire was a devastating blow, but it was not the first time Gorky was forced to start anew. The artist was a survivor of the Armenian genocide of 1915, and he emigrated to the United States as a teenage refugee in 1920.