The Boy Hidden In A Fish
Signed Print

A large fish swims into view. Its skin has been rendered transparent in order to reveal the figure of a boy curled up inside it. The water around the fish is a thick swathe of black ink that contrasts with the cross hatched backgrounds of many of the other prints in this series. The boy is shown looking somewhat desperate as he sucks his thumb, his eyes vacant. Below the fish and the boy a marine landscape stretches out, made of small boulders and narrow sea stacks as well as seaweed, recalling the deserts of the west and some of Hockney's more abstract landscapes. The boy is hiding from a haughty princess in order to win her affection, and the fish is his second attempt; for the first he is hidden in an egg by a raven. Eventually he is turned into the sea hare of this story’s title, and is able to claim the princess who does not see him hiding in her hair. 'The Little Sea Hare' is one of six fairy tales illustrated by David Hockney for his 1969 series dedicated to the Brothers Grimm stories. The prints were originally published as an edition of 100 but also became a book which has been reprinted by Oxford University Press and has sold over 150,000 copies, making this one of Hockney’s best loved series.