Its popularity is such that in a poll commissioned in 2017 it was voted Britain’s favorite artwork beating such historical heavyweights as John Constable’sThe Hay Wain and JMW Turner’sThe Fighting Temeraire.

How has the work of an upstart graffiti artist from Bristol, proudly operating outside the system, managed to upstage some of the most important treasures housed in UK’s most hallowed national collection? Like many of the artist’s best works, its success lies in its stark simplicity, rendered in black and red against the white canvas, the image possesses a visual immediacy that is key to its popularity. Here, we have a stencil of the familiar little girl rendered centrally to the composition with hand outstretched reaching for the heart-shaped balloon that only moments earlier escaped her fingers. Yet, despite this immediacy there is also an enigmatic quality to the work which makes a literal reading difficult to decipher.

Whether the work is concerned with freedom, release, poignancy, loss, temporality or hope depends entirely on the viewer, although what is clear is its timeless appeal.

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Balloon Girl (Diptych) only sold twice at auction since 2007.

It last sold at Christie’s London, on 12 September 2012, for GBP 58,850 (USD94,812).