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This etching is Hockney’s interpretation of the Brothers Grimm tale of ‘Fundevogel’, picturing the lake where a devilish cook meets her watery grave. Hockney drew the landscape from a photograph that he found in an old German paperback guidebook, inspired by the bucolic landscapes he observed during his travels along Germany’s Rhine river. Gorgeous washes of grey layered with tight crosshatching produce a lush and tranquil sense of depth.
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 lake (Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm) 1969
Etching and aquatint on W S Hodgkinson paper watermarked “DH” and “PP”
Plate 17.4 x 12.5 in / 44.2 x 31.8 cm
Paper 24.75 x 17.5 in / 62.87 x 44.45 cm
Unique publisher’s copy aside from the edition of 400 books and 100 portfolios
