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From David Hockney’s celebrated Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm portfolio, an image from the story of ‘Fundevogel’. One of just a few in the series that depicts a single form with such complexity, drawn directly on the plate by Hockney. This is certainly an ode to Giorgio Morandi’s etchings, such as Still Life with Eleven Objects in a Sphere 1942. Hockney and numerous other British artists were inspired by Morandi and his subtle groupings of vessels and everyday objects. This still life features some of the deepest tones Hockney had achieved at the time of the Grimms etchings: he combined crosshatching and aquatint in multiple passes to create the inky darkness of the pot’s shadow. Lively bubbles emerge on the surface of the water, the lightest areas of the image.
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 pot boiling (Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm) 1969
Etching and aquatint on W S Hodgkinson paper watermarked “DH” and “PP”
Plate 6.9 x 7.9 in / 17.5 x 20 cm
Paper 12 x 12 in / 30.48 x 30.48 cm
Unique publisher’s copy aside from the edition of 400 books and 100 portfolios
