The Lake
Signed Print

Stretching across the composition as an absence of ink, a lake is bordered by steep dark mountains. Before embarking on making the prints for his series Illustrations For Six Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm, David Hockney travelled down the Rhine to see the countryside from which many of the classic fairy tales originated. Here we are shown a typical German landscape that the artist has incorporated into his illustrations for the fable entitled ‘Fundevogel’, or Foundling Bird. Here he has left out the characters of the story, a girl and her foundling brother who hide from a cruel cook who wishes to cook the boy in a large pot, by turning themselves into a pond and a duck. Here the pond has become a lake and the focus is on the majesty of the natural elements rather than the plot of the story. Along with Fundevogel, Hockney also illustrated such classic tales as Rumpelstiltskin and Old RinkRank, choosing etching to convey his natural illustrative drawing style in this series of prints. Published in an edition of 100 in 1969 they also became a book which has become a bestseller.