Alasdair Gray (British, 1934-1919) The Hippopotamus, a series of pictures (7)Alasdair Gray (British, 1934-1919)The Hippopotamus, a series of pictures (7) No.1 'The broad backed hippopotamus...'ink and acrylic on card and paper62.5 x 36.5 cm. (24 5/8 x 14 3/8 in.)No.2 'The Hippo's feeble steps may err...'ink and acrylic on card and paper62.5 x 36.5 cm. (24 5/8 x 14 3/8 in.)No.3 'The 'potamus can never reach...'ink and acrylic on card and paper62.5 x 36.5 cm. (24 5/8 x 14 3/8 in.)No.4 'At mating time the hippo's voice...'ink and acrylic on card and paper62.5 x 36.5 cm. (24 5/8 x 14 3/8 in.)No.5 'The hippopotamus'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"62.5 x 36.5 cm. (24 5/8 x 14 3/8 in.)No.6 'I saw the 'potamus take wing...'ink and acrylic on card and paper62.5 x 36.5 cm. (24 5/8 x 14 3/8 in.)No.7 'He shall be washed as white as snow'ink and acrylic on card and paper62.5 x 36.5 cm. (24 5/8 x 14 3/8 in.)These present works were commissioned in 1969/70, when the owner asked Gray to create a work, not specified, on the outward face of The Church not matching the inner meaning of Jesus of Nazareth. Alasdair Gray chose to use T.S. Eliot's 'The Hippopotamus'. In summary, 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. This argument, presented in polished quatrains rhyme, is offered in plain terms but we must not take it at face value. For, whilst the majority of the poem weighs up the hippo and The Church, with the church coming out on top, ultimately it is the hippo that ascends to heaven, despite its considerable bulk, while The Church remains on earth, apparently unworthy of a place in heaven.The original seven works hung in the vendor's home for years. Then Gray phoned one day and asked to borrow them, in order to make reproductions. When Alasdair Gray was interviewed decades later, he recalled the process. "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). R Crombie Saunders provided the translation.Eventually, six of the seven original pictures were returned to the owner, but Gray had to confess that the original version of no.5 had been misplaced. He provided an autographed lithograph of no.5, to enable the owner to re-hang the series on their walls without an omission.Several other lithographic copies of no.5 have appeared at auction over the years, but none of the others from this original set. The series of screen-prints made for the 2007 'Scots Hippo' are well known and have been produced in high numbers, but this is the first time that the original interpretations of Eliot's 'The Hippopotamus' (no.1,2,3,4,6 and 7) have been viewed. They provide a fascinating glimpse into Gray's methods, often overlying sections of card on top of the composition to make amendments and building the image up in sections.