HOCKNEY: INSIDE THE CASTLE

In 1969, David Hockney was commissioned to produce 39 etchings for the series ‘Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm’; he worked on them from May to November of that year. They were published by the Petersburg Press, in association with the Kasmin Gallery, New York, in 1970.

The six stories (of 220) he chose to illustrate were: The Little Sea Hare, Fundegovel, Rapunzel, Old Rinkrank, Rumpelstilzchen and The Boy Who Left Home to Learn Fear.  

David Hockney (1937 - ) Inside the Castle (1969), etching and aquatint, from series: Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm

This etching is called ‘Inside the Castle’, from the latter story. It tells of a bold young lad who gets holed up for three nights in a haunted tower, among other ordeals, in an attempt to make himself afraid, a feeling he has never been struck with. Spoiler alert: after meeting various ghouls and ghastlies, he ends up soaked through, and married to a princess, but still a stranger to fear. Draw from that what moral you will. It has been written that the drawing’s composition nods to a work by the Venetian Old Master Vittore Carpaccio, though Hockney himself suggests rather more prosaic inspiration: ‘That figure, the hat, and the hands, and everything - is from a still from a horror film’.

The print is one of 27 Hockney works on display in Thirsk Hall Sculpture Garden’s Gallery 1 this summer and autumn, in association with Gerrish Fine Art. The Sculpture Garden lies in 20 acres of land East of Thirsk Hall, in North Yorkshire (reopened in May 2022 after an initial launch in 2021), which is run by the London/Yorkshire gallerist Willoughby Gerrish. Sculptors represented in the gardens include the late Yorkshire artist Michael Lyons, Geoffrey Clarke, Elpida Hadji-Vasileva, Richard Hudson, Gerald Laing, Austin Wright and Emily Young.

Thirsk Hall Sculture Garden is open Weds-Sat, until October 22 (excluding August 19-21). Willoughby Gerrish will be exhibiting works by Elisabeth Frink at British Art Fair. 

Inside the Castle, Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, 1969, etching and aquatint, signed by the artist in pencil. Courtesy of Gerrish Fine Art.