Receiving The Inheritance
Receiving The Inheritance
Signed Print
David Hockney
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Etching, 1963
Signed Print Edition of 50
H 50cm x W 62cmx D 55cm
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Meaning & Analysis
Receiving The Inheritance is one of the first plates in Hockney’s A Rake’s Progress series. The series is made of 16 plates showing various scenes from the young artist’s first visit to New York. While inspired by Hogarth’s work of the same name Hockney’s version differs greatly in style and subject; however this work, Receiving The Inheritance, is perhaps closest to the 1735 original. Here we see the artist – easily recognisable thanks to his glasses – sat at a table while a man in a suit appears to read a legal document with various sums of money on it. This can be read as a reference to money Hockney made by selling his prints, which allowed him to make a visit to the American city. Beside the man is a verdant bouquet of flowers in a vase, calling to mind much of Hockney’s later depictions of flowers in its pared back and yet striking style. The figure of the artist himself appears neutral or even downcast despite his windfall, staring straight ahead with a blankness that is emphasised by his glasses. Above his head hovers a red cloud which works as a kind of continuity between the prints in the series, reappearing constantly and adding the only touch of colour to these etchings.
