Corpses On Fire
Corpses On Fire
Signed Print
David Hockney
£750-£1,100
$1,550-$2,250 Value Indicator
$1,400-$2,050 Value Indicator
¥7,000-¥10,500 Value Indicator
€850-€1,250 Value Indicator
$8,000-$11,500 Value Indicator
¥150,000-¥220,000 Value Indicator
$1,000-$1,500 Value Indicator
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45 x 39cm, Edition of 100, Etching
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Meaning & Analysis
Corpses On Fire is a signed etching from 1969 by David Hockney, produced for Illustrations For Six Fairy Tales From The Brother's Grimm. Two male figures sit in the darkness, surrounded by the stream of bright, undulating lines. Spread playfully across the print and rendered in the form of wavy lines, the fire flames illuminate the grave expression on the two men’s faces. The contrast between the dark background and the glow on the male faces establishes an aura of mystery, suggesting that the scene is set in a secluded location, perhaps a dungeon or a cavern. Knowing that it was inspired by The Boy Who Left Home To Learn Fear, the image epitomises the universe of ghosts and ghouls that populate Brothers Grimm’s dark tale.
The Boy Who Left Home to Learn Fear tells the story of a young man whose distinguishing trait is fearlessness. The young man who has never experienced fear in his life travels around haunted places and exposes himself to petrifying views, driven by a curiosity about the unfamiliar human emotion. The trope Hockney alludes to specifically is the night when corpses are taken down from the gallows to be warmed by the fire. It is believed in the story that the view will fill the young man with fear, but ultimately it fails to do so.
Printed on Hodgkinson handmade paper, this etching belongs to Six Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, David Hockney’s first handmade book of etchings that was published by the Petersburg Press in association with the Kasmin Gallery in 1970. Speaking of his interest in this particular story, the artist commented, “I included other stories simply because they were strange. The Boy Who Left Home To Learn Fear is such a strange Gothic story; I’d no idea how to illustrate it. I only knew I wanted to do it.” The dominance of darkness, the nostalgic appearance of the two men, and a tangled web of dark lines covering their bodies capture the strangeness of the story, evoking the uncanny world of the classic German fairy tales.