Among the lesser-known works of David Hockney are beautiful illustrations he created for his favorite fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm.

He created them in 1969 and the tables were all collected in a volume, published a year later, titled Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm.

Among the lesser-known works of David Hockney’s long career are illustrations he created for his favorite fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, a project that reveals his more intimate, quirky, and fantastical side.

It was 1969 when Hockney decided to take a break from his usual pop scenarios to dedicate himself to something completely different: creating 39 copper engravings dedicated to six stories from German folklore. Among these were great classics like Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin (in Italian Tremotino), but also decidedly darker and more bizarre tales like The Sea Hare, Fundevogel (known to us as Ucceltrovato or Uccello Trovatello), Old Rink Rank and The Story of One Who Went in Search of Fear. They can all be seen on the David Hockney Foundation website.

To understand the absurdity and beauty of this project, one must take a step back in time and explore Hockney’s life at the end of the 1960s. At that time, the artist was the cover face of the Swinging London: thick black-framed glasses, hair dyed a dazzling platinum blonde, a lifestyle that defied the conservative and retrograde morals of the era. He had already discovered California, fallen in love with the light of Los Angeles, and begun painting that world where only the bluest pools seemed to exist. He was one of the kings of Pop Art. Just at the peak of his success, Hockney decided he wanted to do something else. In 1969 he took a break from the works that had made him rich and famous to dedicate himself to something completely different: creating 39 copper engravings dedicated to six stories from German folklore. Among these were great classics like Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin (in Italian Tremotino), but also decidedly darker and more bizarre tales like The Sea Hare, Fundevogel (known to us as Ucceltrovato or Uccello Trovatello), Old Rink Rank and The Story of One Who Went in Search of Fear.

What pushed Hockney towards this world was precisely the raw and minimalist way in which the stories were written. He himself recounted: “These little stories are fascinating, told with a very, very simple, direct, and immediate language and style; it was this simplicity that attracted me. They cover a rather strange range of experiences, from the magical to the moral.” Hockney had a lot of fun mixing the past with the present: within the medieval atmospheres of the fairy tales, he inserted historical details taken from ancient architecture manuals, as well as portraits of his friends from that time and his partner and muse then, Peter Schlesinger. To illustrate them, the artist decided to use only the black and white typical of etching and aquatint techniques. The result was a series of minimalist, ironic, and somewhat unsettling drawings. Hockney even admitted that the choice was not related to the popularity of the texts: “My choice of stories was influenced by how I could illustrate them. I chose certain stories simply because they were strange.”

All these plates were then collected in 1970 in a precious collector’s book titled Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, published by Petersburg Press in London.