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From David Hockney’s celebrated Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm portfolio, an image from the story of ‘Fundevogel’. This etching is from the Brothers Grimm tale of ‘Fundevogel’, and depicts the moment Fundevogel has transformed into a church tower to escape an evil cook. ‘The church tower and the clock’ is based on a tower he saw on his journey down the Rhine in September 1968 (a photo of the tower upon which the etching is based features in the 1970 documentary, ‘David Hockney’s Diaries’.)
Hockney chose the story ‘Fundevogel’, or ‘Foundling bird” for its detail, and the narrative of transformation. In ‘Fundevogel’, a forester finds a baby, Fundevogel, in a bird’s nest and raises him with his daughter Lenchen. The family grows up happy and loving each other. When Lenchen sees the cook carrying buckets of water to the house and learns that the cook plans to boil Fundevogel the next day. She warns him, and they flee. The cook sends servants to find them, but Fundevogel transforms into a rosebush and later into a church with Lenchen as a chandelier, each time evading capture. Eventually, Fundevogel turns into a pond with Lenchen as a duck, and the cook drowns while trying to drink from it. The children return home safely.
The church tower and the clock (Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm) 1969
Etching and aquatint on W S Hodgkinson paper watermarked “DH” and “PP”
Plate 11 x 4.8 in / 28 x 12.3 cm
Paper 17.75 x 16 in / 45.09 x 40.64 cm
Unique publisher’s copy aside from the edition of 400 books and 100 portfolios
Light fold along lower left corner
