Back 26 May 2017

Rind

May 1954 sees Escher working on Rind. He was inspired by The Invisible Man, an 1897 science fiction novel by the British author H.G. Wells. In it, an invisible man can only be seen by means of the bandages that cover him. Escher changed the man into a woman. To find the right composition, Escher used his wife Jetta as a model. In 1954, he first makes a preliminary study reaching a final result in two steps in May 1955. First, he makes a second study which he supplemented with a cloud cover for the final version. He described it like this:

‘Like the spiral-shaped peel of a fruit and like a hollow fragmented sculpture, the image of a woman floats through space. The sense of depth is enhanced by a bank of clouds which diminishes towards the horizon.’*

Study I for Rind, wood engraving, May 1954

Study II for Rind, wood engraving, May 1955

M.C. Escher, Rind, wood engraving and woodcut in black, brown, blue-grey and grey, printed from four blocks, May 1955

In Bond of Union, which he produced a year after this, he added a man, creating a pair. In doing so, he also solved a problem that bothered him in Rind. In this print, the loose ends of the bandage can be seen. In contrast, the strip in Bond of Union is endless, like an eternal cycle.