By David Hockney: 'The sexton disguised as a ghost', from the story 'The Boy who left Home to learn Fear', from the portfolio of Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, etching and aquatint, 1970

Etching and aquatint print on paper

Acquired from Petersburg Press, London in 1971.

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.

CIRC.152-1971