Lot 222
ALASDAIR GRAY (SCOTTISH 1934-2019) §
THE HIPPOPOTAMUS (SEVEN PICTURES)
Auction: 14 January 2026 from 10:00 GMT
Description
1. 'THE BROAD BACKED HIPPOPOTAMUS..' Ink and acrylic on card and paper;
2. ‘THE HIPPO’S FEEBEL STEPS MAY ERR...' Ink and acrylic on card and paper;
3. 'THE 'POTAMUS CAN NEVER REACH...' Ink and acrylic on card and paper;
4. ‘AT MATING TIME THE HIPPO’S VOICE...' Ink and acrylic on card and paper;
5. ‘THE HIPPOPTAMUS’S DAY...' Lithograph, with hand written dedication in ink, 'To the Gordon MacPherson 1 Sept 1976, the year of the Great Heat and start of the New Depression./As a momento of the original, commissioned and owned by him, which is on it's way from Alasdair Gray: not yet! Gray adds in October 23, 2003';
6. ‘I SAW THE ’POTAMUS TAKE WING..' Ink and acrylic on card and paper;
7. 'HE SHALL BE WASHED AS WHITE AS SNOW' Ink and acrylic on card and paper (7)
Dimensions
62.5cm x 36.5 cm. (24.6in x 14.3in) each
Footnote
This set of mixed media works represents a fascinating insight into the working practice and dissemination of art by Scottish polymath Alasdair Gray. The present owner, a Glaswegian art lover and patron, decided to commission a piece from Gray in 1969-70, they were happy for him to develop it himself but working to a theme that interested them. On that basis, they requested that Gray create an unspecified work that explored the disconnect between the presentation and actions of the Church and their lack of alignment with the deeper teachings of Jesus. Alasdair Gray chose to use T.S. Eliot's The Hippopotamus as his subject.
The poem is an extended comparison between the hippo and The Church, both 'weighty' things, albeit in very different ways, one literal and the other theological. For much of the poem, the Church appears to be winning but ultimately it is the hippo that ascends to heaven, despite their literal heaviness, while the Church remains Earth-bound, apparently unworthy of such ascension.
The ultimate set of seven works that Gray created as his artistic response to this text and theme hung in the owner's home for years. Then one day Gray phoned and asked to borrow them, so he could develop a set of prints after the original designs. When Gray was interviewed decades later, he recalled: ‘I illustrated that poem and I liked them very much, the seven illustrations. And I decided I would like to make prints of them, and I wrote to Faber & Faber for the copyright and I was told that T.S. Eliot had explained that he did not ever want this poem illustrated, and so the copyright was not available. I think because he wrote it before he was completely converted to Anglicanism. A few years passed before I was able to see a way through, which was to translate it into Lallans, which I did.’ (Gutter, Issue 20, Spring 2019).
After working round the copyright issue and producing the lithographs, six of the seven original works were returned to their home but Gray had to admit that no.5 had gone missing. In its place, he gifted the owner with a signed lithograph of no. 5 so the set would be visually complete on its return. The lithograph still remains part of the set to this day, as the original has never been found – Gray even added an additional inscription ‘not yet!’ in 2003.
The ‘Scots Hippo’ series of screenprints proved to be very popular, so many Gray fans will be familiar with these visuals but this presents a unique opportunity to acquire the originals and learn about how they came to be. Close inspection reveals an interesting peek at how Gray worked, overlaying sections of card to build and amend the original compositions. His commitment to developing the print series from them indicates how happy Gray was with the results of this personal commission.
