This website uses cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies on this website to analyze visits and to show you relevant messages on social media. By clicking 'Accept all' you give permission for their placement and for the processing of personal data obtained in this way, as stated in our privacy & cookie statement.

Our privacy & cookie statement:

International Cat Day on Corsica
8 August 2017

International Cat Day on Corsica

It is International Cat Day. That should lead to an abundance of cute cat movies, but we will mark the occasion by sharing one of Escher's prints. He depicted several cats (and catlike animals) in his linocuts and woodcuts, mainly in his younger years. Sometimes as a subject, sometimes as a detail.

M.C. Escher, Corte, Corsica, woodcut in grey and black, printed from two blocks, January 1929

M.C. Escher, Corte, Corsica, woodcut in grey and black, printed from two blocks, January 1929

Like in this woodcut of the Corsican mountain town of Corte. Escher visited the island in the spring of 1928, with his father-in-law*. Jetta stayed at home; she was pregnant with their second child. From atop a wall, a white cat looks into an alley of the seemingly deserted town. Its presence is subtle, yet compelling.

Source

[*] Wim Hazeu, M.C. Escher, Een biografie, Meulenhoff, 1998, page 143

Erik Kersten

Erik Kersten

Editor

Share:

More Escher today

Mummified Frog

Mummified Frog

In August 1946 Escher created a mezzotint of a mummified frog. He rarely used this technique, despite the subtle nuances in tone it can achieve. The choice of both subject and composition are atypical for this period, in which he experiments with tessellations and geometrical shapes. He depicts the skeleton exactly as he sees it. Escher found the frog behind a piece of furniture in his own house. He printed the work himself on his own press, in an edition of 24 copies.

Death of Johann Sebastian Bach, 1750

On 28 July 1750 German composer Johann Sebastian Bach died in Leipzig. Maurits Cornelis Escher was a big fan. 'I believe that no music moves me as much...', he wrote about Bach’s compositions to his friend Roosje in June 1920.
Bust of 'Jojo'

Bust of 'Jojo'

On 23 July 1926 George Arnold Escher is born, the first of Maurits’s and Jetta’s three sons. He was named after grandfather Escher and after Nol, Escher’s brother who had tragically died during a mountain trip the year before.
'He's an adorable, sweet and beautiful child. Definitely not a freak,'
Escher wrote to his parents.