He Tore Himself In Two
He Tore Himself In Two
Signed Print
David Hockney
£3,000-£4,000 Guide
This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
Intaglio, 1969
Signed Print Edition of 100
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Critical Review
He Tore Himself In Two is a signed etching by David Hockney as part of his 1969 Illustrations For Six Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm collection. In the Brothers Grimm story that inspired this etching, a miller lies to the king that his daughter could spin straw into gold. In the course of the narrative, the king locks the girl up in a tower room filled with straw and a spinning wheel, demanding that she spins the straw into gold by the morning or he will cut off her head. Rather than faithfully representing this turn of events, Hockney focuses on the violent undertone of the story related to the king’s greed and ruthlessness.
The artist said in the context of the Brother Grimm’s stories: “they’re fascinating, the little stories, told in a very very simple, direct, straightforward language and style; it was this simplicity that attracted me. They cover quite a strange range of experience, from the magical to the moral.” It is, indeed, the moral dimension of the story that informs Hockney’s use of the characters and tropes in He Tore Himself In Two. Rather than seeing the princess, we are presented with the figure of the king involved in spinning himself. Represented in an abstract vein, the activity of spinning straw goes hand in hand with the diminishing of the human figure in the print. When spinning reaches its peak in the right picture at the bottom, it does not bring about gold. Instead, the king appears to have perished, becoming the victim of his own greed.
