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Recently, Escher in The Palace and Kunstmuseum Den Haag were able to enrich their collection with a personal work by M.C. Escher: the tile tableau Fish and Birds from 1960, which hung in Escher's studio for many years.
M.C. Escher (design), De Porceleyne Fles (execution), Fish and Birds, 1960, glazed ceramic
M.C. Escher in his studio in Baarn with the tableau in the background, 1960s
Escher received this tableau in connection with a major commission: in the winter of 1959-60, he designed a tile tableau with fish and birds for a villa at Dirk Schäferstraat 59 in the south of Amsterdam. It was commissioned by Wolbert J. Vroom, a great admirer of Escher’s work, who was looking for a black-and-white image to decorate the facade of his newly built home.
Escher proposed to base the tableau on his print Sky and Water I (1938), in which fish gradually metamorphose into birds. The diamond-shaped design would introduce a diagonal dynamic to the modern villa’s orthogonal lines and Escher’s tessellations would lend themselves well to an arrangement of tiles. Escher soon enlisted the ceramics factory De Porceleyne Fles (now Royal Delft) to make the tiles. He had collaborated with them on tiled columns for the Johanna Westermanschool (now the Maris College) in The Hague and would do so again a decade later for a project at a secondary school in Baarn. After a process of several months, the tableau was delivered in the spring of 1960 and unveiled in the presence of the clients, the villa’s architect Lau Peters and Escher. The commissioned larger tableau can still be seen on the villa on Dirk Schäferstraat.
His enthusiasm for the end result is evident from the fact that he gladly received a smaller tableau from De Porceleyne Fles with the same tiles. In his letter to Mr Holland of De Porceleyne Fles, Escher wrote on 15 March 1960: ‘I also forgot to express my gratitude to you for having the small tableau put together. I am very pleased with it and look forward to seeing it!’ Escher gave this tableau a prominent place in his own studio, where it hung for many years and where he was photographed with it on several occasions. It also moved with him to the Rosa Spier Huis, the residential and working community for artists and academics in Laren, where he spent the last phase of his life.
M.C. Escher in his studio at Van Heemstralaan 28 in Baarn, 1960s
M.C. Escher in his studio at Van Heemstralaan 28 in Baarn, 1960s
18 October 2025
Doris Schattschneider, Escher expert and retired professor of mathematics, was a guest speaker at the annual Bridges mathematics conference. This year, the conference was held in Eindhoven in July. She presented her research into Escher's design for wrapping paper for the Bijenkorf department store, for which Escher turned to his hobby of what he called "word-puzzles".
7 August 2025
During his lifetime, M.C. Escher received several letters from enthusiasts sharing their admiration for his work. Not all of these have survived, which makes it very special when relatives lend such letters to a museum. The granddaughter of Hendrik Dekker temporarily loans his carefully written letter about the print Reptiles (1943) and Escher's reaction to it to Escher in The Palace. The handwritten correspondence will be on display from 18 March to 14 September 2025.
3 July 2025
For years, M.C. Escher lived in Rome, but he did not like to depict the city itself in his prints. Escher found Rome more beautiful by night, which led him in 1934 to make a large series of woodcuts and drawings entitled Nocturnal Rome. During this period, he also drew the Basilica Santi Giovanni e Paolo. The drawing led to a lithograph only two years later: S.S. Giovanni e Paolo (1936). Ten years later, he returned to the subject with his first mezzotint: Dusk (1946). At first glance, the lithograph and the mezzotint seem almost identical, but they certainly are not.
