The celebrated Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), was the author of several plays, novels, poems and travel books, but is today mostly known for his fairy tales.
A real innovator in his method of telling tales with a seemingly boundless imagination, Andersen created a collection of fairy tales, which continue to be read and loved by readers of all generations the world over.
Among his fans was Andy Warhol, who conceived the present hommage to the writer a year prior to his death. Apart from his literary talents, Andersen was also gifted visual artist: over the course of his lifetime, he created approximately one thousand paper cut-outs, which he often gifted to his friends and their children. It was his habit to carry a pair of scissors with him, and after having enchanted his company with improvised tales, he often cut a paper silhouette as a souvenir for somebody within his audience.
It was these enchanting ephemeral works, complementary to Andersen's stories, that Warhol used as an inspiration and basis for his print series. Once again, the pop artist used pre-existing images, in this case the work of another artist, enlarged them manifold and gave them his signature coulour treatment, rather than creating his own interpretation of the author's figures and tales.
The source-material for the four prints consists of a famous photographic portrait of Andersen in profil, and of three of his paper cut-outs, created between 1865 and 1870: 'Two Women by a Palm Tree with a Ballerina on Top of it', 'Clown with Tablet on his Head', 'Miller with two Ole Lukøjes'.

The present suite is a trial proof-set of unique colour variants. From 1980 onwards, Warhol began to release signed and numbered trial proofs, The trial proofs can be considered unique works and are evidence of the artist's experiments with a huge variety of colours combinations before selecting a final version to be published as the standard, numbered edition. The nature of the screenprinting process, favoured by Warhol throughout his career, was ideal for such experimentation, as every screen could be reused and a different colour applied.
These unique works can be considered the most sought-after and valuable, and often display more daring and surprising, at times clashing, colour combinations than the published editions.