A Rake’s Progress

The complete set of 16 etchings
Medium: Etching with aquatint in black and red on Crisbrook Royal Hotpress paper
Year: 1961-1963
Size: 25 1/2 x 20 inches (64.8 x 50.8 cm)
Edition: 50
Artist’s Proofs: 10
Publisher: Editions Alecto in association with the Royal College of Art, London
Literature: Scottish Arts Council (17-32), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (12-27)

Signed and numbered in pencil

On 9 July 1961, his twenty-fourth birthday, David Hockney boarded a plane to New York. It was his first visit to America, made possible by his winning Robert Erskine’s annual printmaking award of 100 for Three Kings and a Queen.

“I was taken by the sheer energy of the place. It was amazingly sexy, and unbelievably easy. People were much more open, and I felt completely free. The city was a total twenty-four hour city. Greenwich Village was never closed, the bookshops were open all night so you could browse, the gay life was much more organized, and I thought, ‘This is the place for me'”

When Hockney returned to London in September 1961, sporting bleached blonde hair and a crew-cut, he embarked on a series of prints, a re-imagining of William Hogarth’s celebrated A Rake’s Progress, in which he cast himself as the anti-hero.

“My original intention was to do eight etchings, to take Hogarth’s titles and somehow play with them and set it in New York. What I liked was telling a story just visually. Hogarth’s original story has no words, it’s a graphic tale. You have to interpret it all. So I thought, this is what I will do.”

When Robert Darwin, the Chancellor of the Royal College of Art, heard of the project he proposed that it be published under the RCA imprint, the Lion and Unicorn Press, under the proviso that the number of plates be increased to twenty-four. This proved unworkable and Hockney finally settled on the sixteen plates used for the final edition. The project was later financed and co-published by Paul Cornwall-Jones, of Editions Alecto, whom Hockney met in 1963.

The resulting portfolio follows the adventures and changing fortunes of a young gay man in a city, partly based on Hogarth’s original and partly autobiographical.

“The Gospel singing with the Good people wearing ties with ‘God is Love’ on them is based on a trip I made to Madison Square Gardens to hear Mahalia Jackson, and there was a choir jumping up and down singing ‘God is Love.’ It was amazing, pure Americana. ‘The Door Opening for the Blonde’ was the Lady Clairol advert. ‘Receiving the Inheritance’ was selling etchings to the Museum of Modern Art. ‘Bedlam’, right at the end, is when they’re all plugged into the first radio transistor. I’d seen these people with ear plugs, and I thought they were hearing aids, like my father used to wear. In fact they were the first transistor radios, which you wouldn’t have got in England then. So it was a combination of things that happened to me”

The moral decline of Hogarth’s character is parodied by Hockney’s rake, who falls out of favor with the ‘good people’ when his wallet empties, whereupon he is cast aside and descends into the world of the ‘other people,’ the Bedlam of the mindless masses, tuned into the public radio station WABC.

After two years of work, Hockney completes A Rake’s Progress, and the 16 etchings are published in an edition of 50 by Editions Alecto. In the Times, Bryan Robertson calls them “a total success: edgy placing of images, a fastidious dry sense of the juxtaposition of black and white, and a highly individual formal sense, wiry but not untender, drive home at a spanky pace the up-to-date whimsically autobiographical version of the Rake’s Progress morality tale, based here on the artist’s own escapades in America.”

“They sold the sets for 250 pounds each, and I didn’t dare tell people the price because it was so outrageous I was ashamed of it; I thought etchings should cost two or three pounds each; 250 pounds-madness! But with the money I realized I could go and live in California for one year.”

A Rake’s Progress was exhibited at the Print Centre off Church Street in Kensington at the same time as Hockney’s first one man show Paintings with People at the Kasmin Gallery in New Bond Street. It was met with unanimous critical acclaim, and with the money from the sales of the prints Hockney decided to re-locate to California the following year.

1. The Arrival

The Arrival from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 15 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches

2. Receiving The Inheritance

Receiving The Inheritance from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 15 1/4 x 22 1/2 inches

3. Meeting The Good People (Washington)

Meeting The Good People (Washington) from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 15 3/4 x 22 1/4 inches

4. The Gospel Singing (Good People)

The Gospel Singing (Good People) Madison Square Garden from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 15 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches

5. The Start of the Spending Spree

The Start of the Spending Spree and the Door Opening for a Blonde from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 18×23 inches

6. The Seven Stone Weakling

The Seven Stone Weakling from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 16 3/4 x 20 1/2 inches

7. The Drinking Scene

The Drinking Scene from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches

8. Marries an Old Maid

Marries an Old Maid from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 17 1/4 x 24 1/2 inches

9. The Election Campaign

The Election Campaign from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches

10. Viewing a Prison Scene

Viewing a Prison Scene from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 16 1/2 x 20 inches

11. Death in Harlem

Death in Harlem from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches

12. The Wallet Begins to Empty

The Wallet Begins to Empty from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches

13. Disintegration

Disintegration from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches

14. Cast Aside

Cast Aside from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches

15. Meeting the Other People

Meeting the Other People from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches

16. Bedlam

Bedlam from A Rake’s Progress
Dimensions: 17 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches

 

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Auction Results

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Phillips London: 19 September 2024
Estimated: GBP 200,000 – 300,000
GBP 254,000 / USD 329,946

Seoul Auction: 28 November 2023
Estimated: KRW 150,000,000 – 300,000,000
KRW 495,600,000 / USD 381,612

DAVID HOCKNEY
A Rake’s Progress, 1963
The Complete set of 16 Etchings and aquatints on paper
With the original red linen portfolio and black slipcase with stamped gold title
Signed and numbered on the justification page
Each signed and numbered

Christie’s New-York: 19 April 2023
Estimated: USD 250,000 – 350,000
USD 541,800

DAVID HOCKNEY (B. 1937)
A Rake’s Progress, 1961-1963
The complete set of sixteen etchings with aquatint in black and red
Each signed in pencil and numbered 49 of 50 (there were also ten artist’s proof sets)
With the title, artist’s statement and justification pages
Together with the original red linen-covered portfolio and black slipcase, with the title in gilt