Escher and the Wadden Islands

The five Wadden Islands in the north of the Netherlands provide a home for locals but are also a popular holiday destination. Although part of the Netherlands, the islands feel like a foreign country, if only because of the ferry trip you have to make to reach them. Mainlanders flock to the area for the sea air or to soak up the island atmosphere. This attraction is not new: the area was already popular with holidaymakers when M.C. Escher was a boy. His family visited Ameland during the Easter holidays in 1898, when Escher was still in the womb, though his mother decided not to go on the trip because she was pregnant with 'Maukie'.*

Escher later paid several visits to the Wadden Islands. Sources on his life show that he was on Terschelling and Vlieland during the First World War (1914-1918).** Because foreign travel was not possible at that time, he travelled around his own country with his friends Jan van der Does de Willebois and Bas Kist, occasionally accompanied by his father. Escher had developed a love for photography after being given his first camera in 1913. He took it with him everywhere, and certainly to document trips such as these.

Escher also enjoyed drawing on the islands. A fine example of a drawing he made there is his portrait of a man from October 1920, now in the collection of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. He has captured the man’s characteristic head and moustache, in profile with his gaze ahead of him and a cap on his head. The work has an angular style that is atypical for Escher, with a pronounced contrast of light and shade. Fortunately, it is easy to identify the sitter thanks to Escher’s inscription at the top right: Pieter-Jan Zvtphen Texel X-’20. This short title refers to the summer of 1920, when this Pieter-Jan was his host on Texel. Thanks to Escher’s father, who kept an extensive record of his life, we know that Maurits returned on 13 August from Texel, 'where he lived for approx. 3 weeks with a farmer Zutphen, at De Koog, mostly with Jan Willebois. He made many drawings there, including of his host and his 14-year-old daughter.' Escher probably worked up the sketch he made of his host into this detailed ink drawing after he returned home.***

There are several Escher drawings of the Wadden Islands, but they are in private collections. Escher visited Terschelling more than the other islands, both in July 1919 and early September 1922. He was there with his friend Jan, who is possibly depicted in this drawing, asleep in a chair on a terrace. It is a busy, rapid pen drawing with bushes suggested by the smallest marks. In this respect, it differs completely in style from the geometric approach in his portrait of Pieter-Jan Zutphen and his later, famously precise works, which he evolved through a process of experimentation. The view from the terrace of the Midsland guesthouse on the Westerdam, now The Witte Handt, is recognisable to the residents as the Baaiduinen polder with the Brandaris lighthouse in the distance.****

On 13 September 1922, less than two weeks after his last visit to Terschelling, Escher travelled to Spain and Italy. It sparked a long-standing fascination with Spanish-Islamic art and Italian landscapes, as a result of which Escher’s interest in depicting the Dutch landscape quickly faded into the background. Although the Italian landscape differs greatly from that of the Wadden Islands, he found the peace he was looking for in both environments. In both places he could walk for hours and immerse himself in nature, an essential experience for Escher.

With the exception of a few visits, he would not return to the Netherlands for almost twenty years. He almost certainly didn’t visit the Wadden Islands again, perhaps only in his thoughts.