The Sexton Disguised as a Ghost; Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm

Physical description

Etching and aquatint; black and white print on handmade white rag paper, image depicting The Sexton Disguised as a Ghost, one of eleven illustrations for the story The Boy Who Left Home to Learn Fear. The story takes the boy through a series of encounters with people who offer to teach him fear. The sexton drapes himself in a sheet and silently confronts the boy on the bell tower stairs, expecting to be taken for a ghost.

Place of Origin

England

Date

1969-1970 (printed)

Artist/maker

Hockney, David

Materials and Techniques

Etching and aquatint on handmade white rag paper

Dimensions

Width: 44 cm
Height: 40 cm

Object history note

The illustrations of six Grimm stories that Hockney created in 1969-70 were innovative in both form and technique. Hockney set out to do a book - not the luxury portfolio of prints typical of that moment in art, but a real story book, which would have a narrative illustration for every page of text. Wanting spontaneity, the artist often worked directly on the etching plate rather than doing preparatory drawings. Hockney says that he "stumbled on" a way to force exceptionally rich blacks, by building up layers of etched cross-hatching so that the ink got very thick.

Descriptive line

The Sexton Disguised as a Ghost, etching and aquatint on handmade paper, 1969-70, England

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Baker, Malcolm and Richardson, Brenda, eds. A Grand Design : The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publications, 1997. 431 p., ill. ISBN 1851773088.
In 1961-62 David Hockney did several etchings that illustrated the story of Rumpelstiltskin from Grimm's Fairy Tales (first published in 1812),a collection of Germanic folk tales - some printed and some passed down as oral history - that totalled 210 stories by the book's third edition in 1857, compiled by philologist and folklorist Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785-1863) and his brother Wilhem Karl Grimm (1786-1859). Hockney says that he had always enjoyed the stories and had read them all. He had also researched earlier illustrations of the stories, including rare German editions as well as those by Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac that were quite well known in England. He even took a trip up the Rhine so that he could incorporate authentic architectural details in his Grimm illustrations "They're fascinating, the little stories" commented Hockney, "told in a very simple, direct, straightfoward language and style; it was this simplicity that attracted me. They cover quite a strange range of experience from the magical to the moral."
The illustrations of six Grimm stories that Hockney created in 1969-70 were innovative in both form and technique. Hockney set out to do a book - not the luxury portfolio of prints typical of that moment in art, but a real story book, which would have a narrative illustration for every page of text. Wanting spontaneity, the artist often worked directly on the etching plate rather than doing preparatory drawings. Hockney says that he "stumbled on" a way to force exceptionally rich blacks, by building up layers of etched cross-hatching so that the ink got very thick.
The Sexton Disguised as a Ghost is one of eleven illustrations for the story The Boy Who Left Home to Learn Fear. The story begins very simply:
A farmer had two sons. The elder was clever and knew his way around but the younger one was stupid and good for nothing. When people saw him they said: "That boy will give his father trouble".It was always the older boy who had to help his father; but if he was sent on an errand late at night and on the way he had to cross the churchyard or some other dismal place, he would plead: "No father, I'd rather not go, it makes me shudder".
When the younger brother sat in a corner and heard people telling ghost stories by the fire, he couldn't understand them when they said: "Oh, that makes me shudder!"
"Why do they always say it makes me shudder, it makes me shudder," he asked himself, "I can't shudder - that must be something I have to learn."
One day his father spoke to him: "Listen my boy, you're getting older. It's about time you started to work. Look at your brother, he earns his keep; but what do you have to offer?"
"Father I'd like to learn something" he answered, "if I had my choice I'd learn to shudder; I don't know the first thing about it."
His brother grinned and thought, "Heavens, what a fool he is! He'll never get anywhere."
The father sighed: "You'll learn soon enough what it is to be afraid; but you won't earn a living that way."
The story then takes the boy through a series of encounters with people who offer to teach him fear. The first is the sexton who sends him at midnight to ring the church bell. The sexton drapes himself in a sheet and silently confronts the boy on the bell tower stairs, expecting to be taken for a ghost. The boy shouts at the figure to identify himself and, when the "ghost" stands silent, the boy throws him down the stairs, then rings the bell and goes home. Most of the boy's adventures are gruesome and horrific but, since he knows no fear, he consistently triumphs by responding in a manner which is so simpleminded as to be clever.
Hockney reported that his rendering of the ghost was "like those [René] Margritte stone paintings" and was inspired by a line in the story which had been translated for him as "The...ghost stood still as stone."
The etching plate has had a hole cut through its centre to preclude unauthorised printings from the plate subsequent to the original editions. Such purposeful damaging ("cancellation") of the plate is routine in the publication of limited-edition prints.
Even as late as the 1970s, prints were being acquired at the V&A primarily as instructional documents to illustrate various printmaking techniques. Hence, as with the Matisse woodcut and its woodblock (cat.38), there would have been special significance in having both the Hockney etching and its copper plate as evidence of the etching process. One of England's best known living artists, Hockney was actively collected by the Museum's Circulation Department until its closure in 1976, so that the artist's work could be included in the travelling displays that were sent throughout Britain.

Lit. Stangos, 1977, pp. 194-6, 201-2, 212-6 (story translation quoted above); Hogben and Watson, 1985, p.334

BRENDA RICHARDSON

Materials

Paper; Ink

Techniques

Printed; Etching (printing process); Aquatint

Subjects depicted

Boy; Ghost; Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm

Categories

Illustration; Prints

Production Type and Product Note

Limited edition

Collection code

PDP