David Hockney - Etchings for Grimm's Fairy Tales

David Hockney

Original 1969 etchings from Grimm’s Fairy Tales goldmark

Economic necessity was a major contributory factor in David Hockney picking up an etching needle. In 1961, whilst a student at the Royal College of Art, he found himself penniless and unable to buy paint.

Fortuitously for Hockney the College's graphic department gave out free materials opening up to him a medium in which he has excelled.

The College recognised his talent, awarding him a Gold Medal and the Guinness Award for Etching.

Later in the decade he produced this remarkable suite for Grimm's Fairy Tales.

november 2014

David Hockney Original 1969 etchings from Grimm’s Fairy Tales

goldmark

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David Hockney b.1937 David Hockney had always loved Grimm's Fairy Tales and had read all 220 of them. He also admired earlier illustrations to them by Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. In 1969 he decided to make his own images. He especially enjoyed the elements of magic in the tales, and his images focus on his imaginative response to the descriptions in the text rather than attempting to concentrate on the most important events in the narrative. They are therefore more than simply illustrations: they stand on their own as images, independent of the stories.

For instance, Hockney chose Old Rinkrank because it starts with the words ‘A King built a glass mountain’, and he was fascinated by the problem of drawing a glass mountain. He made various attempts, even smashing a sheet of glass and drawing the ragged pieces piled up in a big heap, before finding the solution: he depicted a tree and a house with a glass mountain in front which distorts their reflection. For other images, he turned to earlier artists for inspiration: Uccello for the Prince on horseback in Rapunzel, Bosch for the Enchantress with the Baby Rapunzel and Magritte's surrealist games for the Room Full of Straw in Rumpelstilzchen, as well as DĂźrer and Leonardo.

The work of engraving the copper plates was carried out by Hockney with his assistant Maurice Payne on special tables set up in the Powys Terrace studio. The acid bath was kept on the balcony outside, because otherwise the fumes would have filled the whole flat. The finished etchings formed a more complex project than anything he had attempted before.

His new technique of cross-hatching instead of using aquatint achieved a much richer range of tones. The fairy tale illustrations show an extraordinary range of imagery including portraiture, landscapes, architecture, imaginative compositions and pure inventions.

Hockney's images are exuberant, inventive and memorable, and he now considers them to be one of his major successes.

Peter Webb, author of Portrait of David Hockney (Chatto, 1988) and David Hockney, Grimm's Fairy Tales (South Bank Centre National Touring Exhibition, 1993)

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FRONTISPIEC E

1.

Catherina Dorothea Viehmann etching & aquatint, 28 x 25.5 cm signed £2000, unsigned £450

THE LIT T LE SEA HARE

2.

The Princess in her Tower

to order phone 01572 821424

etching & aquatint, 44.5 x 32 cm

all prices include frame, vat and uk delivery

signed ÂŁ2000, unsigned ÂŁ750

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THE LIT TLE SE A HAR E

3.

The Boy Hidden in an Egg etching, aquatint & drypoint, 19.5 x 17 cm signed £5000, unsigned £950

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THE LIT T LE SEA HARE

4.

The Boy Hidden in a Fish etching & aquatint, 23 x 26.5 cm signed £5000, unsigned £1250

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THE LIT TLE SE A HAR E

5.

The Princess Searching etching & aquatint, 26.5 x 17 cm signed £2000, unsigned £500

FUNDEVO GEL

6.

A Wooded Landscape etching & aquatint, 39 x 27 cm signed £3500, unsigned £1250

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FUNDE VOGEL

7.

The Cook

8.

The Pot Boiling

etching & aquatint, 18.5 x 20 cm

etching & aquatint, 17.5 x 20 cm

signed £1750, unsigned £400

signed £2500, unsigned £750

FUNDEVO GEL

9.

The Rose and the Rose Stalk

10. The Church Tower and the Clock

etching, 27.5 x 12 cm

etching & aquatint, 28 x 12 cm

signed £5000, unsigned £1200

signed £2000, unsigned £400

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FUNDEVO GEL

11.

The Lake etching & aquatint, 44 x 31.5 cm signed £3500, unsigned £1200

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RAPUNZEL

12. Rapunzel Growing in the Garden etching & aquatint, 44 x 32.5 cm signed ÂŁ2750, unsigned ÂŁ950

to order phone 01572 821424 all prices include frame, vat and uk delivery

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RAPUN ZEL

13. The Enchantress in her Garden

14. The Enchantress with the Baby Rapunzel

etching & aquatint, 23 x 13 cm

etching & aquatint, 27 x 23 cm

signed £1750, unsigned £300

signed £2000, unsigned £500

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RAPUNZEL

15. The Older Rapunzel etching & aquatint, 22 x 24.5 cm signed ÂŁ2000, unsigned ÂŁ650

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RAPUN ZEL

16. The Tower Had One Window etching & aquatint, 33.5 x 15 cm signed £2250, unsigned £850

RAPUNZEL

17. Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair etching & aquatint, 25.5 x 24 cm signed £3000, unsigned £850

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THE BOY WHO LEF T HOME TO LEARN FEAR

18. Home etching, 44.5 x 32 cm signed £12500, unsigned £1500

THE BOY WHO LEF T HOME TO L EAR N FE AR

19. The Bell Tower etching & aquatint, 26.5 x 16.5 cm signed £1950, unsigned £850

to order phone 01572 821424 all prices include frame, vat and uk delivery

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THE BOY WHO LEF T HOME TO LEARN FEAR

20. The Sexton Disguised as a Ghost etching & aquatint, 23 x 26.5 cm signed £2000, unsigned £450

THE BOY WHO LEF T HOME TO L EAR N FE AR

21. The Sexton Disguised as a Ghost Stood Still as Stone etching & aquatint, 44.5 x 32 cm signed £1750, unsigned £450

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THE BOY WHO LEF T HOME TO LEARN FEAR

22. Corpses on Fire etching, aquatint & drypoint, 26 x 24.5 cm signed £1250, unsigned £350

THE BOY WHO LEF T HOME TO L EAR N FE AR

23. The Haunted Castle etching & aquatint, 34 x 20.5 cm signed £3250, unsigned £1250

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THE BOY WHO LEF T HOME TO LEARN FEAR

24. The Carpenter's Bench, a Knife and Fire

26. The Lathe and Fire

etching, aquatint & drypoint, 15 x 17 cm

etching, aquatint & drypoint, 15 x 16.5 cm

signed £1250, unsigned £350

signed £1000, unsigned £350

THE BOY WHO LEF T HOME TO L EAR N FE AR

25. A Black Cat Leaping etching & aquatint, 23.5 x 27 cm signed £2450, unsigned £950

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THE BOY WHO LEF T HOME TO LEARN FEAR

27. Inside the Castle etching & aquatint, 25.5 x 26 cm signed £2000, unsigned £750

THE BOY WHO LEF T HOME TO L EAR N FE AR

28. Cold Water About to Hit the Prince etching & aquatint, 38.5 x 27 cm signed £3000, unsigned £750

to order phone 01572 821424 all prices include frame, vat and uk delivery

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OLD RINKRANK

29. The Glass Mountain etching, 44 x 32.5 cm signed £1750, unsigned £500

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OLD RINKRANK

30. Old Rinkrank Threatens the Princess etching & aquatint, 23 x 27 cm signed £1750, unsigned £350

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OLD RINKRANK

31. Digging up Glass

32. The Glass Mountain Shattered

etching & aquatint, 13 x 11 cm

etching & aquatint, 23 x 26.5 cm

signed £1950, unsigned £400

signed £1750, unsigned £400

OLD RINKRANK

33. The Princess After Many Years in the Glass Mountain etching & aquatint, 45 x 32 cm signed £1600, unsigned £450

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RUMPELSTILZCHE N

34. Gold etching, 34 x 26 cm signed £1750, unsigned £350

RUM PELSTILZCHEN

35. A Room Full of Straw

36. Straw on the Left, Gold on the Right

etching & aquatint, 25 x 22 cm

etching, 15 x 24.5 cm

signed £1750, unsigned £450

signed £1750, unsigned £375

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RUMPELSTILZCHE N

37. Pleading for the Child etching, 26.5 x 25.5 cm

signed £2000, unsigned £450

38. Riding Around on a Cooking Spoon etching, aquatint & drypoint, 16.5 x 25 cm signed £2250, unsigned £500

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RUMPE LSTILZCHEN

39. He Tore Himself in Two etching & aquatint, 44.5 x 32.5 cm signed £2000, unsigned £600

to order phone 01572 821424 all prices include frame, vat and uk delivery

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THE SUITE

Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm PLATES The etchings were drawn onto copper plates and etched by David Hockney in London between May and November 1969. Proofs were pulled by Maurice Payne and the editions printed by Piet Clement in Amsterdam in 1970.

SIGNED PRINTS These prints are from numbered and proof editions and are signed by Hockney.

UNSIGNED PRINTS There were 400 unsigned sets, together with an additional 15 artist’s proofs. The unsigned prints will be accompanied by a copy of the justification page which was numbered and signed by the artist.

CANCELLATION On completion of these editions, the plates were defaced by diagonal scores and two cancellation proofs pulled. No further impressions can be taken.

Signed and unsigned prints are available.

Hockney's images for Grimm’s Fairy Tales are exuberant, inventive and memorable, and he now considers them to be one of his major successes.

visit goldmarkart.com

By far the best known British artist of his generation

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