David Hockney's 23-year-old assistant Dominic Elliott dies

POLICE are investigating the "unexplained" death of artist David Hockney's assistant and close friend, Dominic Elliott.

A post-mortem will be carried out tomorrow on the body of the 23-year-old who was taken to hospital in the early hours of yesterday morning from Hockney's seaside home in Bridlington, East Yorkshire. He died shortly afterwards.

Violence has been ruled out and initial reports suggest the victim "had taken something that led to his death", the Daily Telegraph reports. It is not known whether Hockney, 75, was at the house when the man was taken ill.

Elliott, who was from Yorkshire, helped Hockney set up his equipment when he was working on his projects and exhibitions. He was described as a "close friend" of the artist who painted at portrait of him in 2008 (pictured above).

A spokesman for Humberside Police said: "We were contacted by Scarborough General Hospital, shortly after 6am yesterday morning, after a Bridlington man had been taken to the hospital by a friend from an address in Kingston Road, Bridlington in a serious condition."

A spokesman for Scarborough Hospital said: "The 23-year-old man was sadly pronounced dead at hospital and the police notified."

Hockney, who is one of Britain's best-known artists, owns a house in Bridlington, but does most of his work in a "huge studio" on an industrial unit on the outskirts of the town. Bridlington has been eager to honour its most famous resident, but the famously reclusive painter has shunned the council's attempts to grant him the freedom of the town and rename a local gallery in his honour. ·