Here we tap into dates from M.C. Eschers life and work, jumping through time but always in the now. All year round you can enjoy background stories, anecdotes and trivia about this fascinating artist.
Escher visited Sicily while it was still untouched. In the spring of 1932 he made his first trip to the island, together with his friend and painter Giuseppe Haas-Triverio.
One of the places they visit is the cloister at the cathedral of Monreale. It is considered as one of the most beautiful in Italy. In March 1933 Escher created a wood engraving which is based on this visit.
On 6 March 1938 Jan Escher is born. Following George (1926) and Arthur (1928), he is the third son of Maurits and Jetta. Just as he did for Arthur, Escher created the birth announcement card himself.
In March 1932 Escher created a lithograph of a lion.
In the 1920s and 1930s Escher made several long trips to Italy in search of inspiration for his work. Together with artists he befriended, he visited untouched parts of the country in spring and in summer and made drawings there. In the following winter he developed a selection of these into prints. In February 1931 he produced this lithograph of Santa Severina.
‘I am thinking about a very attractive commission which the Post Office might offer me.’
Escher writes these words to his eldest son George in Canada in June 1967. The question was whether he could expand his four-metre long Metamorphosis II (1939-1940) by another three metres. For the new post office in The Hague this new seven-metre-long Metamorphosis III would be expanded to 48 metres and painted on linen.
Escher visited Sicily for the first time in the spring of 1932, together with his friend and painter Giuseppe Haas-Triverio. From Palermo they travelled to the coast, circled Mount Etna, to Randazzo and visited the lava formations at Bronte. In just over a month, Escher made 23 drawings and took numerous photos.