This is a very rare work that was never editioned or published. According to the artist's studio no more than two impressions exist.

It relates to a series of etchings that Hockney did as an interpretation of Hogarth's The Rake's Progress. Dated 1961, it is representative of this vital period of transition for the artist, which Hockney pinpoints as the time he became 'aware' as an artist.

In 1961 Hockney made his first trip to America and enjoyed a higher level of sexual liberation than he had previously experienced. He expressed this freedom physically by bleaching his hair to mark a radical symbolic change, an event alluded to in the title. That the print explicitly refers to this highlights the correlation between changes in personal circumstance, private expression and artistic values that underpins the nature of Hockney's mature works.

The print can be seen to embody a search for meaningful content as well as dealing with a modern preoccupation with abstract form. Whilst studying at the RCA, Hockney had been influenced by Ron Kitaj, an older, American student, who had prompted them to 'introduce dramas and ideas that interested them into their pictures.' Thus, Hockney develops a concern to imbue his work with personal significance rather than purely formal ideas, and arrives at this expressionistic and autobiographical series that strongly enforces his artistic independence.

The prevailing theme of the print is fire and smoke, which, in The Fires of Furious Desire (1961) Hockney had equated with sexuality. The door from which smoke is billowing presents the idea of a threshold through which sexuality and desire can be accessed. The words 'Fire Island' strongly tie this rite of passage to a geographical location, and 'For Blondes' pinpoints a physical attribute to directly invite Hockney in at this new stage of his life.