Hans Christian Andersen (F. & S. II.399)

F. & S. II.399 is the second print in Warhol’s Hans Christian Andersen series, translating imagery from Andersen’s fairy tales into screenprint form. The composition references Thumbelina — Andersen’s story of a tiny girl born inside a flower — presenting the small figure balanced at the top of a stylised flower stalk while two taller figures stand at its base. The yellow and gold brush marks filling the right side of the composition introduce a dramatic, painterly energy distinct from the controlled graphic ground of the portrait print (F. & S. II.398).

The white silhouetted figures — precise in outline, free of interior detail — read simultaneously as illustration and graphic design, the narrative reduced to essential shapes. The two standing figures at the base are rendered in contrasting tones, one picking up the orange-red of the ground, the other remaining pure white, a subtle distinction that suggests separate characters without identifying either. The large black mass on the left grounds the composition, making the yellow burst on the right read as fire, warmth, or dawn.