David Hockney The Wallet Begins to Empty (M.C.A.T 23) For Sale

The Wallet Begins to Empty, 1963, begins the life descent of the ‘Rake’ in David Hockney’s compelling series, A Rake’s Progress, based on his experiences as a young gay artist, visiting New York for the first time in the summer of 1961. The Wallet Begins to Empty continues the ominous overtones of prints, such as Death in Harlem and The Election Campaign. A 16-part series of etchings, it is based on the 1753 tale by William Hogarth of a wealthy ‘Rake’ man about town, whose life descends into squalor: Hockney’s modernist version nods to the original story in that the ‘Rake’ experiences despair as the liberation he seeks in the Big Apple doesn’t end up materialising.

Whilst the mis-en-scene of many of the images in the series is easy to decipher, in The Wallet Begins to Empty, the narrative is surreal and devoid of context, a metaphor for the inner conflict and confusion from which the young gay artist is suffering. A downcast figure, resembling the artist, is being aggressively turned away by a well-dressed man and woman standing at the top of a large staircase with an obelisk to their side. Since, the obelisk is depicted with lines around it like a shining halo, it is used to convey the couple as having a social stature that is unaccepting of this young, gay ‘outsider’ of a figure. Dejected and downcast, the ‘Rake’ figure is depicted as hunched over and barely managing to slope down these large stairs: he has been cast away from society and appears lacking in self-esteem from his lonely plight as a homosexual man at this time – The Wallet Begins to Empty looks forward to the denouement of the series, Bedlam.

Hockney modernised his version of A Rake’s Progress through composition and storytelling: unlike Hogarth, his etchings are pared back using monochrome with splashes of red ink. The dramatic clouds of red ink by the side of the downcast figure in The Wallet Begins to Empty relate back to the earlier prints, (see The Arrival). The red reminds the viewer of the passion and fiery determination needed to survive in 60’s New York City as a young, emerging and gay artist.