The Blue Guitar

This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience. Please help by spinning off or relocating any relevant information, and removing excessive detail that may be against Wikipedia's inclusion policy. (March 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Blue Guitar
Frontispiece from The Blue Guitar (1976–77)
Artist	David Hockney
Year	1976–77 (drawn) 1977 (printed, published)
Catalogue	S.A.C. 199-218 MCA Tokyo 178-197
Medium	20 Etchings (soft-ground and hard-ground) with aquatint (sugar-lift) on Inveresk mould-made paper, within an embossed grey leather covered box
Subject	The Man with the Blue Guitar poem by Wallace Stevens Pablo Picasso homage The Old Guitarist Suite poetry
Dimensions	Plate: 42.5 × 34.5 cm (16+3⁄4 × 13+5⁄8 in.) Sheet: 53 × 46 cm (20+7⁄8 × 18+1⁄8 in.) Portfolio: 55.5 × 48.5 × 4 cm (21+7⁄8 × 19+1⁄8 × 1+5⁄8 in.)
Location	≥14 public collections worldwide
Collaborators
Taught by Aldo Crommelynck, Paris (sugar-lift aquatint) Proofed by Maurice Payne Editioned by Richard Spare, London Dany Levy Jennifer Melby, New York Prawatt Laucharoen Fabricator Rudolf Rieser, Cologne Publisher Petersburg Press, London and New York
Website	hockney.com/the-blue-guitar

The Blue Guitar is a suite of twenty etchings with aquatint by David Hockney, drawn in 1976–77 and published in 1977 in London and New York by Petersburg Press.

The frontispiece to the portfolio mentions Hockney's dual inspirations:

"The Blue

Guitar

Etchings by

David Hockney

who was inspired

by

Wallace Stevens

who was inspired

by

Pablo Picasso"^[1]