Get to know Maurits Cornelis Escher. Articles by our curator and other authors which provide deeper insight into his life and work. In Escher Today you can follow the artist even more closely.
This month, I will be celebrating my eleventh year as curator at Escher in The Palace. Over the years, I have slowly but surely become attached to Escher's work, but also to Escher as a person. Luckily his image has been featured on many of his own prints: between 1917 and 1950, Escher created nothing less than 12 self-portraits!
M.C. Escher was influenced by the tessellations (repeating shapes or patterns) he saw on the walls of the Alhambra, the Moorish palace in Granada, and the Mezquita, a mosque in Córdoba, both in the southern Spanish province of Andalusia. After studying printmaking in Haarlem, Escher travelled to Andalusia in 1922. He returned in 1936, this time with his wife Jetta. On both occasions Escher copied the tessellations on walls and alcoves, the second time assisted by Jetta.
While still a student at the Haarlem School of Architecture And Decorative Arts, Escher received a commission from his friend Aad van Stolk. Van Stolk was fifteen years older than Escher. They met in 1919 when Van Stolk married Escher's friend Fiet van der Does de Willebois, the sister of his friend Jan. Fiet and Aad resided in Huis ter Heide and Escher stayed with the couple on a number of occasions. It is believed that this close friendship prompted Escher to create woodcuts of the lightly ironic texts of Aad.
In his lifetime, M.C. Escher produced more than 400 prints. In a number of these works, the reptile - alongside the bird and the fish - features prominently. After incorporating his first tessellation in the woodcut Metamorphosis I in May 1937, Escher created Development I. It is an intriguing print in which a number of things happen.
Broadly speaking, admirers of the work of M.C. Escher can be divided into three groups. The first and most obvious group comprises those who enjoy optical illusions. The second group consists of mathematicians, or people who in one way or another deal with mathematics in their daily lives. They regard Escher as the undisputed master of tessellated art, who used...
Dutchman Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is one of the most famous graphic artists in the world. The way he plays with perspective, space and reality means he remains fascinating even today. The highlights of his collection can be seen in Escher in The Palace.
The life of Escher, year by year. In over 70 informative chapters you learn about his life and work, ending with the opening of Escher in The Palace.
Throughout the years several interesting documentaries and short films have been made about printmaker M.C. Escher. On this page we show a selection of them, along with a brief description.