According to David Hockney (born 1937 in Bradford, England), the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm are unlike any other tales or children’s stories you will have read before. Hockney’s etchings re-imagine these strange and supernatural stories for a modern audience. They are in a style that is recognisably the artist’s own, but inspired by earlier illustrators of the tales, like Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. This first edition of Hockney’s book, with the blue cover, brings together well-known tales such as ‘Rapunzel’ and ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ with others that are less familiar. Hockney’s illustrations invite us to read each one as if for the first time.
In 1970, David Hockney and the Petersburg Press published Six Fairy Tales, a collection of thirty-nine etchings alongside the texts of fairy tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (The Little Sea Hare, Fundevogel, Rapunzel, The Boy Who Left Home to Learn Fear, Old Rinkrank, Rumpelstiltskin). Six Fairy Tales is historically significant as an early work in Hockney’s career. The cross-hatching method used in the etchings represented a new development in his artistic process.
First Edition. Small size of 4.3 x 3 inches (11cm x 7.5cm), bound in dark blue morocco. Title lettered in silver, 60 pages printed on paper handmade by W.S. Hodgkinson with 39 illustrations after etchings by Hockney. Published by Petersburg Press (London) in association with Kasmin Gallery in 1970.
