Hans Christian Andersen (F. & S. II.398)
Hans Christian Andersen (F. & S. II.398)
Signed Print
Andy Warhol
97 x 97cm, Edition of 25, Screenprint, 1987
£6,000-£9,500
$11,500-$18,000 Market Value Indicator
$11,500-$18,000 Market Value Indicator
¥50,000-¥80,000 Market Value Indicator
€7,000-€11,500 Market Value Indicator
$60,000-$100,000 Market Value Indicator
¥1,270,000-¥2,010,000 Market Value Indicator
$8,000-$12,500 Market Value Indicator
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Meaning & Analysis
Hans Christian Andersen (F. & S. II.398) is a 1987 screenprint by Andy Warhol depicting the Danish author in a three-quarter seated pose derived from a nineteenth-century portrait. Rendered in cobalt blue and amber against a near-black ground, a second ghostly impression of the same figure recedes into the background in outline alone. The work is from a signed edition of 25.
Produced in 1987 for a commission linked to the bicentenary celebrations of Hans Christian Andersen's birth, Warhol's Hans Christian Andersen series translated the writer's image and fairy tale imagery into screenprint form. Warhol drew on historical portrait engravings of Andersen, finding in the nineteenth-century author a subject suited to the same iconic treatment he had applied to Beethoven and other historical figures in his later practice.
Hans Christian Andersen (F. & S. II.398) shows the author in a seated pose drawn from a familiar portrait source, the figure rendered in cobalt blue coat with amber face and hands, a light blue collar providing contrast. Behind the primary figure, a second impression of the same subject appears in black outline only, set slightly to the right, creating a doubling effect Warhol used across several works of this period to suggest depth or afterimage — the original and its cultural echo presented simultaneously.
The edition of 25 is among the most restricted in Warhol's late print catalogue, reflecting the commission's specific context and limiting the work's availability considerably relative to his mainstream celebrity portrait editions.
