Father's day 2017

Today is Eschers Birthday! On 17 June 1898 at 7.15 Maurits Cornelis Escher was born in the substantial parental house in Leeuwarden, in what is now The Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics. Not that he was fond of birthdays himself. He used to say life was too short to create everything he wanted. His birthday only reminded him of the passage of time.

On 16 June 1924 Maurits marries Jetta Umiker in the Italian coastal town Viareggio. The eldest daughter of the Swiss businessman Arturo Umiker and the Italian Enrichetta Cataneo, she was a silent girl whom he had met in Ravello 15 months earlier. Maurits was fascinated by this melancholic, sickly girl. He believed she was unhappy and the infatuated young man hoped to make her happy. Though not necessarily through marriage, as he was afraid of losing his artistic freedom and wanted more time to get to know Jetta.

George Arnold Escher was 96 years old when he passed away on 14 June 1939. It was therefore no surprise to his son Maurits that his death was near. Yet it felt like a shock. Maurits was the last of father Escher’s five sons (two of whom were from his first marriage).