Printmaker Anne Desmet (b. 1964, Liverpool) creates razor-sharp prints in which she plays with perspective and architecture. Like Escher, she excels in transformations and metamorphoses. She too created her first architectural work in Italy, and this had a lasting impact on her later urban landscapes. This autumn, Escher in The Palace will present the work of the acclaimed Desmet for the first time in the Netherlands, alongside that of one of her great sources of inspiration: M.C. Escher.

She could easily be called the ‘British Escher’, as Anne Desmet has been fascinated by themes of transformation and architecture from a young age, using them as the foundation for her prints and drawings. At art school (Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University), she learned etching, woodcutting, copper engraving, screen printing and lithography. Since then, wood engraving and lithography have become her favourite techniques. Winning the Lithography Prize of the Printmakers Council in London at the age of 23, followed by a Rome Scholarship, set the stage for her illustrious career. In Rome, she created her first architectural work, and after returning to England, urban landscapes also captured her attention. Like Escher, she is fascinated by the world around her, always with Italy in mind. Desmet became a renowned artist in Britain, where she has been appointed a ‘Royal Academician’, the third wood engraver ever to receive this title. She has received dozens of national and international awards and prizes, has had numerous solo exhibitions including museum shows in Italy, Russia and Brazil as well as various museums in England and Wales, and she has worked on many commissions both for museums and for private clients.

One of Anne Desmet’s major fascinations is showing how the past and present influence each other. For example, she often ‘builds’ modern cities on top of ruins. “I want to create a sense of the intertwining and passage of years of history – a kind of metamorphosis that is a dominant theme in my work,” she says. She literally and figuratively gives her prints multiple layers: apart from making relief prints in editions, she also creates collages by cutting, folding, tearing, recycling and combining fragments from her engravings and linocuts with other materials. These new images come to life both on paper and digitally. Her work connects past and present with landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline in New York City and timeless iconic buildings like the British Museum in London. Her architectural works are also at the heart of her impressive kaleidoscopic patterns.

In addition to around forty prints by Desmet, the exhibition at Escher in The Palace will also feature a selection of sketchbooks, woodblocks and tools. The great strength of both artists is the way they construct their images using light emerging from the dark. The craftsmanship and precision of the two printmakers are clearly evident in their prints. The process of working on a woodblock is time-consuming and requires a great deal of patience. Creating a more complex work can take up to three months, and the result is always a revelation, even for the artist. “The white you see on the paper is what I engrave in the wood”, says Desmet. “That I can ‘carve’ light out of darkness is what I find most inspiring about creating wood engravings.”

How to depict infinity on paper? This was a question that exercised the minds of both M.C. Escher and Albert E. Bosman. Albert E. Bosman (1891-1961) was a multitalented engineer who was keen to make mathematics and geometry accessible. He was not only a maths teacher, but also an enthusiastic artist who drew inspiration from his area of expertise. Bosman and Escher were neighbours in Baarn (NL) from 1944 to 1961. They shared a deep fascination with mathematical concepts and both explored limits and the finite and infinite in their work. They made abstract principles visually accessible to a wider audience. For the first time, their work is being shown side by side in M.C. Escher & Albert E. Bosman: A Mathematical Connection at Escher in The Palace. The presentation fills a whole room and has been integrated into the permanent exhibition featuring key works by M.C. Escher.

M.C. Escher managed in his work to seamlessly link mathematics and art, a gift which in the second half of his career brought him into contact with scholars from around the world. But he also had such contacts closer to home, including Albert E. Bosman, his neighbour in Baarn. Bosman was particularly interested in the visualisation of mathematical concepts, as reflected in his best-known creation, the Pythagoras Tree, seen on posters in classrooms throughout the Netherlands for many decades.

Friendship

Alongside Escher’s prints, ten mathematical drawings by Albert E. Bosman are on show, as well as special prints by Escher that belonged to his neighbour’s family. The two men not only shared a love of mathematics and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, they also got along well on a personal level. They may have first met while studying in Delft, where they were members of the Delftsch Studenten Corps fraternity at the same time. As neighbours, Escher and Bosman were frequent visitors to each other’s home, including during the difficult years of the Second World War. Stories about Escher are therefore very much part of Bosman family lore. Bosman’s son Eckart, for example, has clear recollections of seeing Escher making blocks for woodcuts in his studio. Several members of the family also received a print from Escher as a gift on a special occasion, such as a wedding. Escher marked his friendship with Bosman in the form of a bookplate he designed for him in 1946.

Bosman and Escher were interested in the world around them. They attended lectures given by the local meteorology and astronomy society in Baarn. Escher’s fascination with the universe started in childhood, and is occasionally reflected in his prints. Both artists liked to decipher natural laws, which are often associated with mathematical structures. In 1957 Bosman published a book on plane geometry, which explained the links between mathematical principles, shells, nature and the cosmos.

The Pythagoras Tree

The Pythagoras Tree, Bosman’s way of making an abstract mathematical concept accessible in a fun way, was his most important creation. He enjoyed some success with it in his lifetime, having developed it to illustrate the consistent repetition of Pythagoras’ theorem. The Pythagoras Tree is a fractal, a geometric figure that consists of elements that are all a smaller version of the shape of the overall figure. Bosman based his tree on a square with an isosceles right triangle positioned against one side, with a base the same length as the side. Further squares abut the adjacent sides of the right angle, against which triangles are in turn positioned, in an endless repetition. This succession of shapes forms a tree structure that represents the mathematical proposition in an artistic and identifiable way. Several versions of his design are on show at Escher in The Palace.

Julie de Graag was a talented contemporary of M.C. Escher. The two artists shared a great love of nature, closely observing the world around them, and depicting it in their own unique way. 2024 is the centenary of the death of Julie de Graag. In this exhibition, Escher in The Palace is presenting her rich oeuvre alongside that of Escher.

In her stylised prints, Julie de Graag (1877-1924) gave ordinary subjects like animals, landscapes, flowers and plants a certain grandeur. By the time M.C. Escher was just embarking on his career, she had already developed her unique style.

After training at the art academy in The Hague, De Graag specialised in printmaking. Unfortunately, a fire in her studio in 1908 destroyed a large proportion of her early work. But despite this setback, she returned to printmaking after a time. With her clean, precise lines, De Graag managed to capture the essence of the natural world and people on paper. One fine example of her close observation of nature is Two Owls (1921), in which the bird in front looks watchful and defensive as it protects the anxious-looking owl behind. De Graag also made portraits, including one of the well-known art expert Henk Bremmer.

Although she had a great talent for black-and-white images, De Graag also often used vibrant colours, and produced work in relatively small formats. Her personal struggles and the impact of the First World War are reflected in her prints, as she increasingly chose to depict tranquil subjects. Her doubts about her abilities grew, and eventually came to dominate. Julie de Graag took her own life on 2 February 1924.

In this exhibition Escher in The Palace will showcase Julie de Graag and her contribution to art, in the context of the prints of fellow printmaker M.C. Escher. The beauty and depth of her graphic work, which depicts the richness of nature and the essence of life, makes it a pleasure to behold. This exhibition, shining a spotlight on Julie de Graag, will ensure that her work finally receives the acknowledgement it deserves.

During the exhibition on Julie de Graag, an installation by the Croatian artist Tina Iris Chulo will be displayed in the ballroom. In her work, Chulo aims to connect with the natural world, something she shares with Julie de Graag and M.C. Escher. She explores our relationship with other life forms in Feel Free to Talk to Plants, with which she graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague this summer.

Maurits Cornelis Escher achieved world-wide fame with his optical illusions but it is less well known that he also made art for public spaces. In 1959-60, he designed a tile tableau with fish and birds, inspired by his famous print Sky and Water I (1938), for a villa 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. The Vroom family recently gifted two previously unseen Escher design drawings for this project to the museum. This remarkable gift also includes the extensive correspondence relating to the commission and family photos of the unveiling of the tableau, which Escher attended. The items will be displayed at Escher in The Palace from 17 September.

A unique commission
Wolbert J. Vroom and his wife Antonia H.M. Dreesmann contacted Escher in 1959 because they wanted a title tableau for the facade of their house at Dirk Schäferstraat 59 in the south of Amsterdam. Escher proposed to base the tableau on his print Sky and Water I in which fish gradually metamorphose into birds. The diamond-shaped design would add a diagonal dynamic to the modern villa’s orthogonal lines. Escher had the tiles made by De Porceleyne Fles, the earthenware manufacturer now known internationally as Royal Delft. Escher worked with them on several occasions, including on the production of tiles for schools in The Hague and in Baarn.

The two drawings give us an insight into the design process. One of the design drawings shows the search for the right composition. Escher came up with two variants, one with a horizontal emphasis, the other vertical. He made a drawing of the facade and covered the horizontal design with a flap of paper with the vertical version, enabling an easy comparison of the two options. This should have made it simple for the Vrooms to reach their decision but the extensive correspondence between Escher, Vroom, De Porceleyne Fles and the architect Lau Peters reveals tensions surrounding this important choice. The various parties discussed at length which design it should be before finally settling upon the horizontal, diamond-shaped design. Escher elaborated the design in a detailed drawing, on which he numbered all the tiles with his famous precision, leaving nothing to chance. The fabricator, De Porceleyne Fles, could then set to work.

Ultimately, all parties were enthusiastic about the result, as is evident from a letter from De Porceleyne Fles to Vroom: ‘We all agree that this tableau will truly be a jewel on your home.’ The tiles were delivered and installed in the spring of 1960 and unveiled in the presence of Mr and Mrs Vroom, the architect Lau Peters and Escher. The tableau can still be seen on the villa on Dirk Schäferstraat.

The design drawings, photographs, letters and a few spare tiles can be seen in a specially designed display in the museum. Willem de Winter, appraiser from E.J. van Wisselingh & Co. and expert at Tussen Kunst & Kitsch, helped with the appraisal and is excited by this wonderful discovery: “The highlights of this exceptional gift are the drawings of the tableau. You rarely find drawings of this kind today. And although it is an unknown design by Escher, it is a recognisable image because of the characteristic fish and birds. What a find!”

Museum Escher in The Palace in The Hague recently acquired a unique work by Maurits Cornelis Escher: a woodcut of a white cat. While unmounting it, an unknown text by M.C. Escher himself was also discovered. The woodcut of the white cat had long been on the wish list of Escher in The Palace. The fact that this print is a counterprint makes the acquisition even more exceptional, and a fantastic addition to the collection.

Escher made this work when he had just moved to Haarlem in 1919, to study at the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. His landlady gave him a white cat as a pet. The animal became a favourite subject for Escher. He filled a sketchbook with drawings of the cat, and depicted it in three woodcuts. Twice, the cat featured as the main subject, while in the third she lies on the sitter’s lap. All three prints are on display at Escher in The Palace from 25 June to 15 September.

Read more about this acquisition

Maura Biava was the first artist to create underwater photography in the early 1990s. Accompanied by a photographer and a diver, she herself would dive metres deep into the sea with costumes and objects for a photo series or a video of her performance. Every minute she was supplied with air so that she could stay underwater for an hour. This method alone could be called magical.

At a young age, the Italian artist was curious about the world around her, a trait she shares with M.C. Escher. For her photography, drawings and ceramic work, she draws inspiration from nature and mathematics. In her solo exhibition at Escher in The Palace, she is showing three underwater photography works, new ceramic works and the resulting photography, as well as a series of works on paper.

Biava often used ceramic objects in recognisable natural forms such as stars, shells and flowers as props for her underwater photography. Gradually the objects became sculptures in their own right. For her presentation at Escher in The Palace, she is creating new ceramic work about hands, inspired by work by M.C. Escher. She sees her hands as an important source of energy, which she transforms into art using matter and a mathematical formula. The hands thus not only give form to the work of art, but also become the work itself. Also on display is a photo series featuring patterns of hands covered in clay, which Biava developed into wallpaper too.

As with Escher, for Maura Biava nature and mathematics are the basis for creating new worlds. While, for many people, mathematical principles are abstract and elusive, she tries to fathom and visualise them. Many forms, such as those of plants, humans and animals contain mathematical cores that also repeat themselves, like the star shapes in cacti and starfish, for example. This also occurs in man-made objects. For example, a star also forms the basis of soft, machine-served ice cream, which is thus nevertheless founded on natural principles.

For her Form Informed series of works on paper, Biava took analytical geometry as a starting point. Working with a mathematician, she converted mathematical formulae into graphs on paper. Using a computer programme, Biava combined two different formulae to obtain a new three-dimensional formula that is also visualised in the form of a graph. Her “palette of formulas” is broad: Biava combines the formulae of historically important mathematicians. For Form Informed, she gave the visual interpretations of two formulae their own colour, which she then printed on top of each other.

Maura Biava (b. 1970, Italy) was educated at the Liceo artistico in Brera and the Brera Academy in Milan (1992), and also attended the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (1998). She has been artist in residence at EKWC in Den Bosch (2008) and at the ISCP, New York City, USA (2014). She is a specialist teacher at the Royal Academy in The Hague. Her work can be seen in exhibitions worldwide and features in several Dutch collections, including those of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Het Nieuwe Domein in Sittard and AkzoNobel Art Foundation.

An extraordinary find led Joris Escher to a voyage of discovery into the life and work of his great-uncle, Maurits Cornelis Escher. Among family heirlooms, Joris found a Chinese lacquerware box containing ivory puzzles. Hidden in the bottom he found some drawings by M.C. Escher and his father, Joris’s great-grandfather. Escher in The Palace is to show them for the first time in an exhibition entitled Becoming Escher.

The lacquerware box came from the home of Maurits Cornelis Escher’s parents, where Maurits – known to family and friends as Mauk – spent his childhood surrounded by all kinds of art objects his father had brought back from China and Japan. As a child, he played with the ivory puzzles, and made drawings of them as an adult. The hidden drawing that Joris Escher found at the bottom of the box unravels the system behind a six-part puzzle, revealing the solution step by step. This was typical of the young Escher, who would often make new discoveries while pondering conundrums.

Becoming Escher will highlight a number of M.C. Escher’s sources of inspiration. Growing up among Japanese screens, prints and other objects, the visual idiom they represented found its way into his early prints. Mauk developed his admiration of Japanese art and culture thanks to his father’s stories and the objects he brought back to the Netherlands. His father George Arnold Escher was one of the first hydraulic engineers invited by the imperial government in 1873 to modernise Japan’s infrastructure. In Japan, these ‘Water Men’ remain famous to this day.

The objects in this small exhibition will tell a story of family, history and connection, with a central role for the lacquerware box and the unknown drawings made by Escher and his father. It will also considers the role that George Escher played in Japan, and include a number of rare construction plans that he drew. These unique loans will be shown alongside objects from the museum’s own collection. The six-part puzzle, for example, also features in a unique work on display at Escher in The Palace – a drawing dating from 1943, almost twenty years later than the drawing in the box. M.C. Escher clearly remained fascinated by the puzzle many years later.
six-part puzzle, revealing the solution step by step. This was typical of the young Escher, who would often make new discoveries while doing puzzles.

Joris Escher wrote a book about his discoveries. Also entitled ‘Becoming Escher’ (Escher worden), it was published in the Netherlands last year by Atlas Contact, and is scheduled for publication in America this year. It details Joris’s quest to discover his great-uncle Mauk, on whose lap he remembers sitting as a small child. In a mix of fiction and non-fiction, the author follows in the footsteps of his famous forebear, visiting the same places, and exploring his beloved printmaking techniques. Joris Escher will loan the drawings and the box to a museum for the first time for this exhibition, along with other objects that shaped M.C. Escher.

Becoming Escher will show concurrently with an exhibition of photography, drawings and ceramics by Maura Biava and our collection exhibit featuring highlights from the work of M.C. Escher.

The sculptures of Jehoshua Rozenman (b. 1955) are not as they first appear. They look robust, monumental, but they are in fact made of fragile glass. These mysterious pieces resemble impossible, secretive buildings that seem to come from another dimension. It is in the tension between fantasy and reality that Jehoshua Rozenman and M.C. Escher meet. This summer, for the first time, Escher in The Palace will combine the two-dimensional world of Escher with the two- and three-dimensional work of Rozenman.

Like Escher, Jehoshua Rozenman is a true craftsman. He takes his time when making his complicated sculptures, and might spend months on one piece, carefully seeking the perfect balance between figuration and abstraction. His use of materials enhances the mystery, as the glass makes his sculptures light, fragile and soft, but also dark, strong and edgy. At the nexus of art and architecture, the viewer discovers in his sculptures influences from movements like the Bauhaus, Futurism and Brutalism.

What is real and what is not? It remains unclear whether Escher’s structures really are impossible, or just appear so. We might ask the same of the work of Rozenman, who recently extended his artistic practice to include AI (artificial intelligence). He regards the technology as an assistant and a creative sparring partner; a tool to help him make his vision concrete. AI uses his input, often a model of a sculpture, to generate an image, which Rozenman adjusts until he is satisfied with it, and then makes a print. Out of the Box will show this process, and its results.

To Rozenman, Out of the Box is a suitcase full of unfamiliar material that feeds his artistic practice. Concept, fantasy and craftsmanship flow and merge in his art. His new source of inspiration has led to a surprising mix of sculpture, AI prints and models, which are on show around the museum, among Escher’s work.

Jehoshua Rozenman

When Jehoshua Rozenman moved from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam in 1979, he went to study art at the Rijksakademie. After years of combining painting, video work and sculpture, in 2005 Rozenman switched to using glass to express his ideas in physical form. His sculptures have been referred to as ‘anti-glass’, as they look as if they are made of wax, iron or ceramics. The transient nature of life is an ever-present theme in Rozenman’s work, and its organic character is a reference to nature. Jehoshua Rozenman lives and works in both Berlin and Amsterdam.

The themes close to M.C. Escher’s heart are still alive and kicking. Even today, we see artists incorporating optical illusion, reflection, nature and architecture into their artworks. In the major exhibition Just Like Escher, Escher in The Palace shows how contemporary artists and designers such as Damien Hirst, Iris van Herpen, Chris Ofili and Carlijn Kingma challenge Escher’s ideas.

Impossible objects, masterful metamorphoses and absurdist architecture. In Just Like Escher, Escher in The Palace brings to life famous themes associated with Escher through contemporary art. Thirty-six artists, both national and international, illustrate how current and challenging Escher’s themes remain, and how his work lives on and evolves in contemporary culture.

Escher was an important source of inspiration for British fashion designer Alexander McQueen. Just Like Escher features a dress from his Horn of Plenty collection, in which Escher’s influence can be seen in the pattern. Photographer Marwan Bassiouni and Escher share a fascination with merging multiple worlds in their work. The labyrinthine architecture of the large sculptures by Belgian sculptor Renato Nicolodi reflect Escher’s love of impossible buildings.

Studio Lennarts & De Bruijn designed a room-sized wallcovering inspired by tiles from the Alhambra, which was also a tremendously important source for Escher. On the second floor, Studio Wae has created a new floor from recycled materials that combine to form an Escherian pattern. Even the wrapping paper in the Palace’s gift shop is a work of art during the Just Like Escher exhibition. It was designed by Hansje van Halem and inspired by Escher’s wrapping paper design used for many years by department store De Bijenkorf.

Each work is a surprising response to Escher’s work. Sometimes Escher is literally chosen as a point of reference, sometimes the creator shares Escher’s fascination with certain themes but gives them an entirely unique twist. So the similarities between Escher and contemporary artists can be both conscious and unconscious, but the interplay always creates new perspectives.

The participating artists are Damien Hirst, Iris van Herpen, Chris Ofili, Alexander McQueen, Jan Taminiau, Carlijn Kingma, Hans Op de Beeck, Ruri Matsumoto, Levi van Veluw, Koos Breukel, Maria Roosen, Studio Lennarts & De Bruijn, Jan van der Ploeg, Popel Coumou, Stéphane Couturier, Sigrid Calon, Nazif Lopulissa, Renato Nicolodi, AFARAI, Satijn Panyigay, Marwan Bassiouni, Anton Bakker, Susanna Inglada, Hansje van Halem, Henri Jacobs, Ishraq Zraikat, Helena van der Kraan, Sybren Renema, Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, Louisa Boyd, Studio Wae, Jelle Korevaar, Raquel Maulwurf, Stefan Bleekrode, Dora Lionstone and Annemarie Petri.

The exhibition Just Like Escher is part of Escher Year 2023, marking 125 years since the birth of M.C. Escher. The anniversary is being celebrated throughout The Hague, with a range of exhibitions, events and city dressing.

In 2023 it is 125 years since Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was born. Escher is a celebrated artist, but this would not have been the case had it not been for his mentor and good friend Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita (1868-1944). The striking work of De Mesquita hangs alongside that of his most famous pupil at Escher in The Palace.

De Mesquita was not only a magnificent artist and printmaker, he also taught graphic techniques. It was in this capacity that he first met a keen young man at the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. Encouraged by his parents, Escher initially chose to specialise in architecture, but soon reconsidered when De Mesquita saw his early work, and convinced his student to switch to graphic art. The two artists developed a lifelong artistic and personal connection.

Escher was a good student, and during his training he carefully observed the style and subjects of his teacher. De Mesquita depicted people and animals using strong lines, focusing on the essence. His animal portraits are full of character, made during visits to Artis zoo in Amsterdam, where he would study the animals. De Mesquita laid the foundation for Escher’s artistic practice, though they each went their own way stylistically after Escher had graduated. They remained in contact, however, and De Mesquita followed Escher’s career with great pride.

Even the Second World War did not stop the two men from remaining in touch. De Mesquita had Portuguese Jewish roots, and they both understood the dangers that he faced. Escher nevertheless continued to visit his old friend in those dangerous times. But his fears became a reality when, on the night of 31 January 1944, De Mesquita, his wife and their son Jaap were arrested and deported. The lives of De Mesquita and his wife came to a tragic end in Auschwitz. Their son Jaap also did not return from the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The unsuspecting Escher arrived at the empty home and studio of his former teacher on 28 February. It had been looted, and was in disarray. He gathered together as much of De Mesquita’s work as possible, thus saving a large proportion of his collection. Escher was thus able to honour his mentor in the years following his death.

Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita is known as the man who discovered M.C. Escher. But the exhibition shows that he was more than that. He was a powerful artist who made timeless prints. Escher in The Palace brings together the work of these two inspiring artists, reuniting the masters.

This exhibition features artworks by Spanish artist Susanna Inglada (1983). Read more about her large-scale, theatrical installations in wood and paper.

Want to know more about Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita? Click here.

This week, a long-concealed self-portrait of Rembrandt is set to return to The Hague. From Tuesday 29 November onwards, it will be on display in Escher in The Palace, which was home to it from 1850 to 1894, when the palace belonged successively to Prince Hendrik of the Netherlands and his sister Great Duchess Sophie. The painting has not been seen in the Netherlands since 1898 – for nearly 125 years – and has not even been on public display since 1967. The self-portrait is being given a unique spot among the famous self-portraits by Dutch printmaker M.C. Escher, whose work has been on display in the palace since 2002. The Rembrandt will be exhibited here until 29 January 2023.

Eventful journey

This unique event is the result of recent research into the painting’s history by Rembrandt specialist Gary Schwartz. Schwartz drew on numerous unpublished documents in the Royal House Archive, the archives of the American and German governments, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, German courts, as well as private correspondence between Hereditary Grand Duchess Elisabeth of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and the German-American Rembrandt specialist Jakob Rosenberg. In his publication Rembrandt in a Red Beret – The Vanishings and Reappearances of a Self-portrait, Schwartz reconstructs the adventures of this significant work.

The painting first surfaced in 1823, when it was purchased in Brussels by the future King Willem II of the Netherlands (1792-1849). The work was relocated to The Hague in 1839, after which it hung in the newly constructed Gothic Hall of nearby Kneuterdijk Palace from 1842 onwards. The death of Willem II resulted in 1850 in the break-up of his outstanding art collection through auction. And yet the self-portrait did not go very far. It ended up in Lange Voorhout Palace, which belonged to Willem Frederik Hendrik (1820-1879), Prince of Orange, known as Hendrik the Seaman. The painting remained here for at least 35 years, most likely 44 years.

Its subsequent history reads like a detective novel. After being bequeathed within the royal family to Hendrik’s sister, Princess Sophie (1824-1897), the work was taken to the German city of Weimar, where she was Grand Duchess. There it remained until 1921, when it was stolen from the Weimar Museum. It was missing until 1945, when it suddenly resurfaced in the USA.

The American government seized the self-portrait and sent it back to Germany in 1967 with the intention of having it returned to the museum in Weimar. Once in Germany, it was successfully claimed by an heiress of the last Grand Duke, Hereditary Grand Duchess Elisabeth of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1912-2010). Once again, the canvas disappeared from public view. Until now, 55 years on.

Attribution to Rembrandt

It was taken for granted that the painting was a genuine Rembrandt until 1969, when a German-Dutch art historian Horst Gerson suggested that it might be by or in imitation of Ferdinand Bol. Although Gary Schwartz maintains that no Bol expert has ever entertained this idea, the Rembrandt Research Project did actually take it seriously. Gary Schwartz: ‘Doubts about who produced the painting were fuelled by the damage sustained by the self-portrait after it was stolen in Weimar. Incompetent overpainting misled people as to the work’s quality. Comprehensive new technological research work carried out by the renowned Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft in Zürich has revealed that only the face is work by the original painter. And anyone looking at that face will struggle to regard it as anything other than a self-portrait by the master himself’. In his new publication, Rembrandt in a red beret – The vanishings and reappearances of a self-portrait, Gary Schwartz argues that the work deserves to be acknowledged as by the master himself. He interrogates and refutes objections to accepting the painting for what it appears to be, a Rembrandt self-portrait.

Publication

Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt in a Red Beret – The Vanishings and Reappearances of a Self-portrait, 336 pages, bound, full colour, ISBN 9789462585348, WBOOKS, €59.95.

During Art The Hague Escher in the Palace is showing two sculptures by Hans van Bentem, an artist who is inextricably linked to the museum. Since it opened, its rooms have been graced by his huge chandeliers in a whole range of forms, including a skull, a bomb and a spider. The glittering crystal enhances the majestic feel of the palace, and lightheartedly reflect the fantasy element in the work of Escher.

In his SELF-PORTRAITS series, Van Bentem adopts various characters, including a clown, a dictator, a little girl and a Roman emperor, exploring the extent to which he is taken over by the character, and how much of his own personality remains. Thanks to these transformations, the portraits not only reflect Van Bentem himself, but also his audience, who are prompted to consider how overbearing they are, and to what extent their own identity is obscured by them. Van Bentem’s distinctive blue eyes are recognisable in all the images, however, playfully provoking his viewers, as if inviting them to step into the character themselves.

The two sculptures of a girl and Caesar will be on display from 4 to 9 October in connection with Art The Hague, which has named Hans van Bentem ‘icon of Art The Hague 2022’. During the art fair, more of his self-portraits will be on display throughout the city, at locations like Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Beelden aan Zee, De Spelonk and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KABK).

Escher in The Palace is set to host a royal encounter this autumn. The work of 10 artists based in The Hague will be on display as part of the Royal Encounters exhibition, a dialogue between tradition and experimentation, between past and present. Escher in The Palace invited the artists to produce new graphic work, drawing inspiration from Lange Voorhout Palace and its principal resident, Queen Emma, the Queen Mother. The artists were challenged to step outside their comfort zone for this exhibition, as they are ordinarily engaged in a wide array of different disciplines, from major architectural installations to photography. Their innovative approach is yielding a colourful palette of artworks. A kaleidoscopic perspective on history which shows that graphic art is more than two-dimensional work on paper. From an imprinted robe to a silk screen window to a golden etching: the possibilities of the graphic medium are endless.

Royal Encounters, which is being held on the occasion of the Graphic Art Triennial 2022, provides a contemporary take on Escher in The Palace’s two fundamental pillars, combining Escher’s penchant for the graphic medium with the museum’s iconic setting. A palace that continues to inspire people to this day due to its baroque regal rooms and stories about Queen Emma.

Whilst producing their new work, the chosen artists were closely supervised by the Grafische Werkplaats in The Hague, where they got acquainted with various graphic techniques. A small presentation of test prints and preliminary sketches for the work on display at Escher in The Palace is running in parallel at the Grafische Werkplaats.

Artists

Ai Hashimoto
Arike Gill
Hanna de Haan
Koos Breen
Lotte van Lieshout
Marleen Sleeuwits
Nynke Koster
Thijs Ebbe Fokkens
Yaïr Callender
Zeger Reyers

 

 

Escher in The Palace will be looking in the mirror of M.C. Escher this summer. Escher’s world is a mirrored world – a game of repetition and reflection, looking and being amazed. His self-portraits in convex mirrors show the graphic artist himself in just such an alternative world. The reflections in natural scenes or small Italian streets betray Escher’s love of the possibilities that reflections bring. This summer, you will experience Escher’s fascination in Escher in The Palace. A fascination that continues to grip contemporary artists to this day.

A beautiful example of this are the mirrored spheres by Arnout Visser (1962). In the early years, this glass artist contributed to the success of Droog Design with his designs and he always looks for striking forms in his glass art. His Explosion Spheres are mirror balls on steroids: explosions of reflections in which he blows liquid glass through a thin metal net, thereby creating a ‘frozen explosion’. It is difficult to control this burst of bubbles, so each sphere is unique and reflects the viewer differently. A technical tour de force that results in a miniature world with dozens of different reflections.

In the permanent exhibition on the second floor, you can admire the reflective artworks of glass artist Tomas Hillebrand and optical glass masters Václav Cígler and Miloš Balgavý. In the optical illusion cabinet by Ad van der Kouwe and Don Satijn, your gaze is drawn forever downwards. In addition, the youngest museum visitors can discover the world of M.C. Escher’s mirrors by taking part in a playful family quest. This summer, an explosion of mirrors will ensure unique encounters between art and people.

Art as a mirror of the soul

The new acquisition by the contemporary artist Jelle Korevaar, entitled … (Dotdotdot), will be on show at the same time. Korevaar’s work is displayed next to Escher’s print Eye – one of Escher’s reflective masterpieces, in which you see a skull reflected in the pupil of an eye. Korevaar plays with the same themes in his skull, such as death, eternity, introspection and reflection. A mechanical skull that continuously and incessantly cries thick tears of oil. With both artists, the viewer sees the work, but they also look their own mortality in the eye.

… is an infinite movement – the skull cries endlessly. M.C. Escher was also fascinated by this form of infinity, as can be seen in his prints Waterfall and Möbius Strip. It is not possible in reality, but on paper Escher creates eternity in the mind of the viewer. Thanks to the built-in energy source and the continuously rotating wheels, Korevaar does manage to achieve eternity. The optical illusion of Escher’s perpetuum mobile is a reality in Korevaar’s skull.

Obsession with editions

Escher in The Palace is currently showing a special selection of ten portraits by Andy Warhol. This iconic American Pop Art artist shared his love for graphic arts with M.C. Escher. The screen printing technique that Warhol often chose, gave him the opportunity to make his work in editions, so that his art was available to as many people as possible. Escher also chose printmaking for the same reason: accessibility is of great importance to both artists. In addition, the work of both artists is characterised by principles such as reflection and repetition.

All images © The Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts Inc. C/O Pictoright Amsterdam 2021

Reigning Queens

In the main hall, you are welcomed by Warhol’s series of four queens: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland (now: Kingdom of Eswatini) and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. These brightly coloured portraits form the series Reigning Queens (1985), as these women were the only reigning queens on earth at that time.

Warhol created different versions of his portraits by varying backgrounds, graphic shapes and colour fields. In his hands, the Reigning Queens acquire a combination of allure and glamour. Warhol used existing photographs to create these series of screen prints. For example, the photo that was taken in 1977 on the occasion of her silver jubilee is the basis for the portrait of Queen Elizabeth. The official state photo that Max Koot took after the inauguration in 1980 is the source of the portrait of Queen Beatrix. The portrait of Beatrix is also extra special for the museum, due to its relation to Palace Lange Voorhout. The former queen knows this palace well: it has been her working palace for a long time, so she spent a lot of time here.

All images © The Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts Inc. C/O Pictoright Amsterdam 2021

Superstars

Whereas Warhol’s series of Campbell’s soup cans and Brillo boxes turned the everyday into art, Warhol often chose famous people for his portraits. On the first floor, six portraits of famous women can be found: here, the faces of the superstars Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Jane Fonda and Ingrid Bergman are looking at you. Big names from Hollywood history who were already world-famous when Warhol made them even more iconic with his visual ingenuity. The same applies to his portraits of the legendary first lady Jackie Kennedy and the Japanese art collector Kimiko Powers. With her husband John, the latter assembled one of the most extensive collections of Pop Art in private hands.

Warhol was mesmerised by celebrity and, due to his status as a world-famous artist, also moved around in those circles. The artist, who started his career in advertising, became a brand himself. A man who, with his bright colours, his choice of materials and subjects and his hyper-stylisation, created a recognisable style that made him the standard-bearer of the Pop art movement.

To celebrate The Hague Fashion Week, Escher in The Palace is organising the exhibition Looking With Your Hands, featuring fashion you can touch by Dutch-Curaçaoan designer Michelangelo Winklaar. Inspired by his visually impaired mother, Winklaar has developed an experimental exhibition in which he allows a wide audience, including blind and visually impaired visitors, to experience a fashion collection by touch as well. Whereas a fashion collection in a museum would ordinarily be not for touching, it is precisely the sense of touch that Winklaar is inviting the public to use.

The collection developed by Winklaar is an ode to his homeland, Curaçao. For these colourful garments, he draws inspiration from nature, with the distinctive yellow Kibrahacha tree as a centrepiece. Winklaar has chosen a variety of silhouettes, fabrics and techniques specially for the exhibition. Visitors will experience the weight of a heavy, rough sequin fabric, as well as the lightness of a tulle. A slender evening dress is alternated with the shapes of a voluminous, angular 80s blazer. Thus creating a wide array of sensations for everyone’s fingers to discover.

The work of Winklaar (1983, Willemstad) is characterised by feminine forms, a mix of textures and the use of crafts. Within the collection being exhibited, this is reflected in the use of spiral ribbing, high-quality embroidery and hand-painted flowers. Sustainability is also important to him—he likes to use what are deemed leftover materials from the textile industry. Winklaar draws inspiration for his garments from both the Dutch fashion scene and the colourful culture and nature of Curaçao.

Winklaar makes subtle references to the work of M.C. Escher and the Lange Voorhout Palace, the museum’s location. Hence the fashion looks feature nods to elements in Escher’s prints, such as order and chaos, metamorphosis and geometry. Winklaar also harks back to the fashion of the time of Queen Emma, the Queen Mother. The exhibition in the ballroom and green lounge of the museum is in line with Escher in The Palace’s mission to be actively inclusive for audiences that may be less inclined to visit a museum. It is not only blind and visually impaired visitors who will be able to enjoy Winklaar’s collection; sighted visitors, too, will get an opportunity to experience fashion in a whole new way.

Activities & accessibility

Escher in The Palace is organising two guided tours for the blind and visually impaired specially for the exhibition. On 20 November and 18 December from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m., the museum will open its doors before opening time to enable participants to experience Winklaar’s designs in peace and quiet. You can find more information here.

You can find more information about Michelangelo Winklaar on his website.

www.michelangelowinklaar.nl

Time and Eternity. Poetry in Image and Word

This summer, Escher in The Palace welcomes the three-dimensional paper art objects of Dutch artist Annita Smit (b. 1966) between the work of M.C. Escher. Smit uses paper in a three-dimensional way in her intricate artworks, which are full of rhythm, movement and structure. For the objects in this exhibition Smit has used remnants of Bible production and old Bible paper. Her work is characterised by refinement, subtle colours and detailing. What appears from a distance to be one small world turns out to be composed of minuscule cut and coloured pieces of gossamer paper.

The exhibition also features new poetry on the themes of time and eternity by contemporary poets Babs Gons and Mustafa Stitou, encouraging visitors to reflect. The poems will be available to visitors of the exhibition in a free booklet, along with the Dutch essay, “Being Dialogical: Two Voices, Two Times”, by philosopher Joke J. Hermsen, which was written especially for this project.

Time and Eternity is a duo exhibition in collaboration with the Kloosterkerk The Hague, where other work by Annita Smit and contemporary poets will be on view. This initiative of the Biblical Museum revolves around the direct relationship between art and viewer, bringing together image and word in paper objects and poems. Without captions, titles or wall texts, this collaboration between Escher in The Palace and the Biblical Museum invites visitors to enjoy the art in the monumental ballroom of Palace Lange Voorhout and experience it in their own way. An exhibition that prioritises mindfulness: turn off your brain, turn on your heart.

 

Duo exhibition

Time and Eternity is a duo exhibition, on view at both Escher in The Palace and the Kloosterkerk, both located on the Lange Voorhout in The Hague. The opening hours of the Kloosterkerk are Tuesday to Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. At the Kloosterkerk, entry to the exhibition is free of charge.

Time and Eternity is an initiative and production of the Bijbels Museum, made possible thanks to the support of Mondriaan Fund, Doopsgezind Predikfonds Haarlem, Iona Foundation, Vrijzinnige Fondsen, Royal Jongbloed, De Schrijverscentrale and Friends of the Biblical Museum.

The greatest graphic art by Escher and his contemporaries

The most famous printmaker in the Netherlands is without a doubt M.C. Escher. His graphic art depicting optical illusions has earned him a unique place in both national and international art history. But he was not the only Dutch printmaker of importance in his time. The exhibition Graphic Grandeur: Escher and his Contemporaries at Escher in The Palace highlights the graphic art of Escher’s Dutch contemporaries. In collaboration with Kunstmuseum Den Haag the exhibition shows the versatility of Dutch graphic art through prints made by Escher’s friends, acquaintances and mentors. Also on display are the works of other artists who lent colour to the time when Escher was developing into a major printmaker.

Graphic art is a form of art that combines creativity, craftsmanship and tradition with technical challenges. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, printmaking was very popular in the Netherlands. Graphic art was alive and well. The works were often produced in editions, introducing the art to a broader audience. This made graphic art popular, also among artists who were best known for other art disciplines. Famous names like H.W. Mesdag and Jozef Israëls, for example, also produced lithographs and etchings alongside their paintings. M.C. Escher enjoyed the company of artists who truly embraced the discipline, such as his mentors Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita and Richard Roland Holst, as well as friends like Gerd Arntz and Paul Citroen.

From landscapes to portraits and from buildings to geometric shapes, Graphic Grandeur brings together the work of 43 merciless printmakers with the work of M.C. Escher from 3 March to 5 September 2021. Prints by such artists as Piet Mondriaan, Matthijs Maris, Jan Mankes, Isaac Israëls, Jan Toorop, Jacoba van Heemskerck, H.N. Werkman and César Domela offer a cross-section of Dutch graphic art at the end of the 19th and early 20th century. The graphic art of Escher’s contemporaries features primarily the same themes as addressed by Escher, often with a surprisingly different end result. Discover the versatility of graphic art at Escher in The Palace.

Escher in The Palace is housed in the former winter palace of Queen Emma, the Queen Mother. In Emma: Savior of Orange, a photo exhibition from her time in The Hague could be seen. In 1878, King Willem III married Adelheid Emma Wilhelmina Theresia, Princess of Waldeck − Pyrmont, 41 years younger. She was 20 years old at the time. She was the first queen in our palace. 20-year-old Emma set to work energetically: she quickly learned Dutch and was informed about culture, politics and constitutional law. This later came in handy during the regency that she fulfilled around the death of her husband William III and in the eight years up to the coronation of Wilhelmina in 1898. Emma was always guided by the importance of the monarchy. After troubles surrounding the royal family in the middle of the 19th century, she laid the foundations for its current popularity through her quiet policy and simple approach.
Emma was a modern woman who made clever use of the new medium of photography for royal PR. Her “charm offensive” with the young Wilhelmina by her side endeared her to the population. Photos of both of them were distributed as postcards.

The exhibition showed the Dutch life of Queen Emma as she wanted to present herself. As a sweet but also strict mother and as a public figure, involved with people and country. She opened hospitals, celebrated anniversaries and made all kinds of visits across the country after her active reign. Her sincere commitment and sense of duty to government and monarchy have shaped the style of subsequent queens. The exhibition Emma: Savior of Orange showed that Queen Emma was more than just the sweetest old lady in Europe.

In 2008, Escher in The Palace was the first to exhibit the hats that were worn that year during Prinsjedag (Prince’s Day). All female ministers and state secretaries and many members of the Senate and House of Representatives lent their hats for this exhibition in the Ballroom. In the room where heads of state once dined among the former Queens Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix, the special creations of a frivolous tradition were now exhibited. Hats from well-known designers such as Herma de Jong, Mirjam Nuver and Berry Rutjes were on display.

Containing designs by Herma de Jong, Myra van de Korput, Thea van der Helm, Ingeborg Steenhorst, Liesbeth van Well, Mirjam Nuver, Laurindo Andrea, Evelyn Barra, Gerrie Bos, Frida Pelgrum, Berry Rutjes jr., Tiny Meihuizen, Anna Martinali, Henriette Dijking, Elisabeth de Meulmeester and Peter George d’Angelino Tap.

In the summer of 2007, Escher in The Palace was the guest location for the sculpture exhibition The Hague Sculpture. That year, the exhibition was focused on Australia, Down Under. The palace exhibited work by Australian artists Ron Mueck, Natasha Johns-Messenger and Ah Xian.

Ron Mueck enlarges or shrinks people, evoking a direct sense of involvement with the image. Mueck’s Big Baby (1997) and Old Woman (2000/2002) were brought to The Hague especially for Down Under. Ah Xian’s Human Human series was shown, featuring man-sized people. They are all made with typical but different Chinese decorations, including a large red woman whose body is completely covered with red lacquer figures, as if by a three-dimensional tattoo. Natasha Johns-Messenger spectacularly changed two spaces through visual illusions created in situ. In the basement, she developed a refined mirror maze in the former silver room of Queen Emma, the Queen Mother. Johns-Messenger made good use of the geometric patterns on the late 19th-century floor. With this installation in the silver room she won the The Hague Sculpture Rabobank Award 2007. For the former stairwell for servants she made another installation in which the ceiling of the second floor is seen from below.

Woodcuts and linoleum cuts by Sietse Bakker

Sietse Bakker is a woodcarver, just like M.C. Escher was. Within a print, Bakker often combines the woodcut with the linocut. He makes his own paint and is a craftsman.
Bakker is strongly inspired by the Russian avant-garde, especially by the combination of text and image. For this exhibition he engages in dialogue with texts by the Jewish-Russian poet and essayist Osip Mandelstam about Armenia.

Sietse Bakker’s graphic works are not modernistic, but unique. His urge to literally process themes that are close to his heart in this way leads him to adopt a visual idiom that seems remote. Bakker proves the opposite. He breaks through the unity of time and place, a classic achievement in European visual art. Space and time offer room for everyone’s own experience. A mobile spatial concept where the bottom can be the top and the front is the back.

The final linocuts by Herman Geerdink

In November 2005 the painter, graphic artist, printer and teacher Herman Geerdink passed away at the age of 54. Escher in The Palace, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Gallery AdK, made an exhibition of Geerdink’s final linocuts. After hearing that he was seriously ill, he decided to limit himself to making linocuts. This was his way of surviving. Herman Geerdink was a passionate man. His work was his life. For Geerdink, the lino was the last means of keeping working. Escher in The Palace paid tribute to Geerdink with the exhibition Herman Geerdink: work = life.

An exhibition in which stamps played a central role, from design to stamp sheetlet. The emphasis was on post-World War II designs and artists who worked for PTT (Dutch postal services), later TPG and now TNT. M.C. Escher designed an aviation fund stamp for PTT in 1935. In 1949 he was commissioned to design the Jubilee stamps for the Universal Postal Union. Two stamps were made of the same design. It was made in two colours, the 10-cent stamp in brown-red and the 20-cent stamp in dark blue. It is not entirely coincidental that his then client exhibited his own art collection in 2006. The stamps of TPG Post are, just like the work of M.C. Escher, graphic artworks. In addition to Escher’s prints, work by Fons Haagmans, Marte Röling and Peter Struycken was on display. Designs by these and other artists were shown, as well as sketches of stamps, proofs and postage stamps. This work was combined with works of art by the same artists from the TPG Post art collection. At the opening of the exhibition, Karel Appel’s latest design was shown: his stamp design for The Weeks of the Card, an annual TNT Post initiative to promote postal traffic.

Recent drawings by Fernando Botero

In the summer of 2006, Escher in The Palace paid tribute to the Colombian painter, draftsman and sculptor Fernando Botero. The Abu Ghraib series, which Botero made as a result of the events in the eponymous prison, was shown here for the first time. Because Botero blows up the proportions of his subjects, we often associate his work with innocence. However, there is no trace of this in these prison drawings. Human cruelty is unveiled, from a dog with bared teeth in front of a naked man kneeling on a tiled floor to the man suspended by his foot in an indefinite space in an almost classical pose.

A photo exhibition was held in the basement at the same time: Jolly– Botero, photos that Willy Jolly took of Botero. The Hague-based photographer Willy Jolly has taken many photos of the artist in recent years, a selection of which was shown at our palace in the summer.

Masterpieces by decorative painters

In the spring of 2006, Escher in The Palace entered into an alliance with the best decorative painters in the world. These painters are able to paint hyperrealistic “marble”, “wooden” and fantasy landscapes on interior and exterior walls. Every year these professionals have an international conference where experience and knowledge are traded. They show their work and create pieces for and with each other. During The power of illusion, masterpieces by decorative painters, Escher in The Palace showed the most beautiful works of the 2006 congress on the second floor of the palace.

An overview of his woodcuts

Just as M.C. Escher did, The Hague-based artist Jos de l’Orme (1962) has a great predilection for the woodcut. However, he is not fascinated by themes such as reflection, repetition or tessellation. De l’Orme portrays people and animals and is concerned with nature. He uses strong stylisation with animals and people, a simplification that can arise from the graphic technique of woodcarving. For the works “after nature” there is often more of a fluid style with interlocking and complementary shapes.

For De l’Orme, the woodblock has the same plastic value as the print we usually see. A print is the print of a woodblock where the image can be seen in mirror image. Jos de l’Orme’s woodblocks are autonomous works of art. He does give the blocks a colour—light blue, black or orange—but not with the intention of printing prints.

In 2005, the reopening after the major renovation of Hotel des Indes gave rise to the exhibition Hotel as a guest: Des Indes at Escher in The Palace. In 1881, the brand-new Hotel Des Indes opened in The Hague in the former residence of Baron Thierry van Brienen “to give Indonesian families a home from home”. This hotel still stands at the head of Lange Voorhout. It has now been renovated and has been given a striking ochre yellow colour.

In the exhibition, Escher in The Palace showed the history and future of the most beautiful hotel in the Netherlands. Here monarchs were received, Worth fashion shows were held, socialites met in the bar, cabinets were formed over exclusive dinners, weekly radio programmes were created, statesmen cheered and pigeons were kept on the roof for years. The death of the world-famous ballerina Anna Pavlova in the hotel on 23 January 1931 caused a stir at home and abroad. Her black coffin was brought to the boat with black horses drawing the carriage. One of the hotel’s scrapbooks contains pages full of newspaper reports about the arrival, stay and unexpected death of the megastar. The exhibition featured many such memorabilia, scrapbooks, menus, photos, postcards, cutlery, crockery and the once-loved suitcase stickers.

In the summer of 2005, the exhibition Royal Summer in The Palace was put on. It focused on the artists Bruno Ninaber van Eyben and Peter Struycken, both of whom made sensational designs for the Dutch guilder and the Dutch stamp at the beginning of Queen Beatrix’s reign. The portrait of Queen Beatrix, which Peter Struycken designed for the Court of Audit in 1997, was enlarged on the facade of the palace.

Contemporary graphic works from the collection of the Bouwfonds Kunststichting

In January 2005, the exhibition Wood & Stone, contemporary graphic works from the collection of the Bouwfonds Kunststichting (Art foundation) opened. This exhibition consisted of two parts: one part comprising woodcuts and one part comprising lithographs. Thus offering more information in various ways about Escher’s two favourite graphic techniques. Featuring work by Marlene Dumas, Jörg Immendorff, Axel van der Kraan, Jaap Wagemaker, Erik Andriesse and Fons Haagmans, the exhibition shows that Escher’s beloved techniques are still being used at a high level at home and abroad.

In the winter of 2004, Escher in The Palace exhibited the successful Orosz at Escher, featuring the work of the Hungarian graphic artist István Orosz. He is an artist who is very much inspired by Escher and uses quotes from him in many of his works. Orosz creates prints in which the world is sometimes literally turned upside down. His playful imagination and careful application of graphic principles make István Orosz’s work accessible to and loved by many.

Between 1995 and 2003, Rotterdam-based artist-photographer Helena van der Kraan regularly took photos in Paleis Lange Voorhout. She photographed the halls in all their glory, often portraying people viewing the art. Helena van der Kraan captured the melancholy of an old building inside and out, closed and open. Festive, as was the case during the balls of Queen Emma, the Queen Mother, and modest, where sometimes a single person views the art. She did justice to the new purpose of this old house as a museum. At the same time, her photos also exude the intimacy of the former palace halls. It was the first temporary exhibition organised in Escher in The Palace.

For the first time, two Dutch museums with totally different backgrounds organised a common exhibition in which a comparison between Islamic art and the work of MC Escher was central: Escher & Treasures from the Islam in Escher in The Palace, and Escher meets Islamic Art in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.

After 1936, M. C. Escher used tessellation as the ideal means for his main themes, eternity and infinity. Escher was impressed by the sophisticated and sometimes complicated tessellations he saw in Andalusia in 1922 and 1936, and he copied them in his notebooks. They connected to what he tried out during his training as a graphical artist between 1919 and 1922. In 1937 his older half-brother, the geographer and crystallographer Berend Escher, showed him the seventeen symmetry systems of Pólya, Escher let his imagination run wild. For years Escher studied and made variations of these systems in notebooks, on loose sheets, and in colour studies. This collection of studies was an inexhaustible source for his prints.

In Islamic art, tessellations are made with the same symmetry systems Escher examined. Because of this, visual similarities exist between Escher’s prints and Islamic art. It is noteworthy that both Escher, as well as the Islamic artists, only used a compass and a ruler to design their patterns. In the prints made by Escher, you will often see living beings change: birds, fish, butterflies, and reptiles. He will show you changes in shapes, or continuous movement with these motifs. In Islamic art, these shapes evolve to complex abstract shapes, or floral shapes: flowers and branches.

A unique collaboration

Because M.C. Escher was a printmaker and worked in edition, it was possible to show a number of the same prints in both museums. The Tropenmuseum showed, next to the graphical work of Escher, a focus on his drawings, studies, and tessellation studies. These were combined with masterpieces from the Islamic art collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and with loans from the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. The objects from the Islamic world, shown both in Amsterdam and in The Hague, were used mainly in a non-religious setting. They come from a vast region, extending roughly from Spain to India. Escher has never seen these objects. He got his inspiration from the Spanish-Islamic art in Granada and Córdoba where he in 1922 and later in 1936 copied mosaics with his wife Jetta .

Escher in The Palace focused on Escher’s graphical work, with world-famous prints such as Metamorphosis I, II and III, Day and Night and Reptiles and a large loan from the renowned Islamica collection of Kunstmuseum Den Haag (formerly: Gemeentemuseum Den Haag)

Publisher THOTH offered a richly illustrated catalogue in both Dutch and English: Escher & Treasures from Islam and Islamic Art Meets Escher.

In the summer of 2016, Escher in The Palace showed how Escher spent his holidays. His whole life Maurits Cornelis Escher enjoyed the seaside. A selection of Escher’s own photos were shown in the Ballroom. Bathing costumes from the 1920s and 1930s from the collection of Kunstmuseum Den Haag (formerly: Gemeentemuseum Den Haag) were also displayed. It was also possible to photograph yourself wearing an old-fashioned beach-wear.

 

Read the story about this exhibition by former curator Dunja Hak: Escher by the Seaside.

Escher’s personal photo archive

Maurits Cornelis Escher used photography as a source of inspiration and as part of his preliminary studies, as was  evident for the first time in the exhibition Escher, Close Up. Escher took hundreds of photos during his life, but he never exhibited them. Although they transcend the level of glimpses into his family life, these photos were considered private by Escher. He compiled neatly ordered photo albums comprising snapshots of wonderful memories and interesting images. After his death, his archive was only viewed by a select group of historians.

Escher, Close Up enabled visitors to see a selection of images from Escher’s personal photo archive. His photos not only offer insight into his mind and his daily life, but they also provide an unparalleled vision of his way of working as an artist. They show how he strived towards composition and visual illusion, for instance. To look at his photos is to focus on what fascinated the artist, revealing his perspective on the world. Escher has never been so close.

Read the stories by former curator Dunja Hak about the role photography played in Escher’s life and work and how this exhibition came to existence.

The extraordinary in the ordinary

From frame to cutout

From photo to fantasy

Escher, close up: a fresh look at the famous artist and his work

Every autumn, Escher in The Palace joins in with the festivities surrounding Prinsjesdag. In 2017, the theme of the Prinsjesdag festival was ‘Time to find common ground’. It was a good reason to raise the profile of Queen Emma, the Queen Mother. We did this in conjunction with the National Archive. The presentation was held in the finest room in Emma’s winter palace: the ballroom. There, the original ‘Troonrede’ (the Dutch equivalent of the Queen’s Speech) from 1891 could be seen as well as some remarkable memorabilia from the visits Emma took to the Dutch provinces.

When King Willem III passed away after a period of illness in 1890, his successor Wilhelmina was still a minor. Consequently, Emma van Waldeck-Pyrmont stood in as regent until her daughter was old enough. Emma is perhaps not the most well-known member of the House of Orange, but she did a lot to ensure the continued existence of the monarchy. This despite her regency (1890-1898) starting on the back foot: she was young, she was not from the Netherlands (was of German origin) and she was a woman.

In a time in which women in the Netherlands still did not have the right to vote, Emma was the first female head of state to sit on the Dutch throne. In a time of increasing nationalism and polarisation – then of all times – she managed to unite the Dutch people and carve out a positive image for the royal house.

Emma was not only dutiful, intelligent, resolute and impartial, she was also more visible than her predecessors. Through a sophisticated publicity campaign, she managed to create a positive image for the royal family and travelled throughout the country with her daughter. In so doing, she not only prepared the young Wilhelmina for her future reign, but she also prepared the country for her daughter. Emma was the mother of the modern monarchy.

This year The Hague was caught up in the Analog Patterns festival, a pattern-themed initiative of the Grafische Werkplaats. Escher in The Palace joined in the festivities with the exhibition Once upon a time… with works by Christie van der Haak and Suzan Drummen in the Palace’s ballroom and ‘green room’.

Within Escher in The Palace, Escher’s oeuvre is divided into two main themes: eternity and infinity. In the case of eternity, the most significant roles are played by nature, perspective and reflection. Infinity encompasses mathematical principles such as tessellations, polyhedra of stars and planets, and crystalline structures.

The work of Christie van der Haak and Suzan Drummen ties in seamlessly with these two main themes, and in particular with the scientific side of Escher’s oeuvre. Both artists are fascinated with patterns, reflections, polyhedra, and structures. Nevertheless, their fascination manifests itself in a totally different way than it does with Escher. Whereas Escher’s patterns border on the understated, the work of Van der Haak and Drummen is a rollicking rollercoaster of patterns, a vibrant paean to colour.

This encounter between extremes produces a convergence, rich in contrast, of different perspectives and phenomena surrounding the theme of patterns. And just as in love, two eventually become one: opposites attract.

In Once upon a time… a metamorphosis occurred,  as it does in Escher’s most famous work. The work of Christie van der Haak gradually melded and metamorphosed into the work of Suzan Drummen. Hence both artists were responding not only to each other’s work but also to the work of Escher and the floors of the Palace, designed by Donald Judd. And the simple fact of holding this exhibition in Escher in The Palace gave rise to something else that’s new: a new perspective on Escher’s work. A new perspective on patterns. Thereby breaking the mould.

Art about mathematics

Escher in The Palace showed a series of remarkable sculptures by the Dutch mathematician and artist Rinus Roelofs (Hengelo, 1954) in the palace ball room. The main subject of Rinus Roelofs’ art is his fascination about mathematics. To be more precise: his fascination about mathematical structures. Mathematical structures can be found all around us. We can see them everywhere in our daily lives. The use of these structures as visual decoration is so common that we don’t even see this as mathematics. But studying the properties of these structures and especially the relation between the different structures can bring up questions. Questions that can be the start of interesting artistic explorations.

Artistic explorations of this kind mostly lead to intriguing designs for sculptural objects, which are then made in all kinds of materials, like paper, wood, metal, acrylic, etc.. It all starts with amazement, trying to understand what you see. Solving those questions often leads to new ideas, new designs.

Since Roelofs uses the computer as his main sketchbook these ideas come to reality first as a picture on the screen. From there he can decide what the next step towards physical realisation has to be. A rendered picture, an animation or a 3D physical model made by the use of CNC-milling, laser cutting, or rapid prototyping. Many techniques can be used nowadays, as well as many different materials. But it is all based on his fascination with mathematical structures, a fascination that Rinus Roelofs shares with M.C. Escher.

 

The art of graphic artist M.C. Escher is a source of inspiration to countless creative spirits—from architects to rock stars, from mathematicians to graphic designers and from schoolchildren to artists. Picture book creator Wouter van Reek draws inspiration from Escher too. His latest book, Nadir en Zenith in de wereld van Escher (Nadir and Zenith in the World of Escher), takes readers on an adventure with its protagonists Nadir and Zenith. They end up in the wondrous world of Escher, replete with endless staircases and impossible buildings. That world was brought even more vividly to life in our 2019 summer exhibition. We showed illustrations from the book, preliminary studies, the story of the creator and, of course, the works of Escher. It was an experience for visitors of all ages.

Exhibition for young and old

Protagonists Nadir and Zenith accidentally clamber and climb into Escher’s world and go hunting for the unknown. Nothing is normal in the world of Escher—above turns into below, high suddenly becomes low. Nadir is a bit cautious sometimes, but Zenith takes on the challenge from a more uninhibited perspective. Together they brave the impossibilities of Escher’s work.

Escher in The Palace brought Wouter van Reek’s picture book to life in this cheerful exhibition for visitors of all ages. This exhibition took families, picture book fans, and Escher fans alike on a wonderful voyage of discovery in which there were all sorts of things to see, do, and read. Visitors came face to face with the most significant sources of inspiration for the book: the prints of M.C. Escher. The story by creator Wouter van Reek took visitors on a journey too. Together with a specially designed educational quest, children could work their way through the exhibition with Nadir and Zenith, exploring the world of Escher as they go.

Book

Published by Uitgeverij Leopold in conjunction with Escher in The Palace, the magnificent children’s art book Nadir en Zenith in de wereld van Escher (Nadir and Zenith in the World of Escher, ISBN 978 90 258 7691 3) is available in the gift shop of Escher in The Palace and in general bookshops for €15.99

From boredom to optical illusion

A Sense of Wonder was the first exhibition ever to bring together M.C. Escher’s secondary school days with the prints that he would make thirty years later. Escher’s former secondary school in Arnhem shows a considerable degree of correspondence between the real world and a series of post-war prints by Escher. It is generally assumed that after he left Italy in 1935, reality had very little bearing on Escher’s prints. People talk of his ‘mindscapes’, as opposed to the ‘landscapes’ that characterised his earlier work.

A 2014 study by Escher in The Palace showed however that ‘the hell of Arnhem’, as Escher referred to his school days, was extremely significant for important prints such as Other World and Relativity, as well as several other prints that could also be associated with these. This research forms the basis of the exhibition: A Sense of Wonder, from boredom to optical illusion. 

Maurits C. Escher was fourteen years of age when he attended the Hogere Burger School (H.B.S.) in the Schoolstraat in Arnhem, in the east of the Netherlands. He would later describe his time at this secondary school as “a living hell”. When you arrive in this large, stately building, dating from 1904, you are almost instantly greeted by a wide staircase that guides you upstairs. On the next level, you can either turn left, or right to the next – narrower – staircase featuring pseudo Romanesque passageways. We ought to be grateful to this institution, because it inadvertently encouraged Escher to dream and let his imagination run wild. In his mind, the young Maurits C. Escher conjured up images of rotating staircases as well as tumbling, twisting and turning spaces. These images followed him into adulthood, when as a mature artist he explored ways to – seemingly effortlessly – depict different perspectives of the same space.

Using digital techniques, photographer Gerrit Schreurs created an impression of the staircase in the state it was presumably in during the years 1912-1918: Escher’s school days. These enormous photographic reconstructions were shown for the first time in the exhibition. In A Sense of Wonder the photos could be compared with the prints and the visitor was able to experience how the adolescent Escher was inspired by this important staircase through innovative research.

Optical glass art from the Czech Republic and Slovakia

In Glorious Glass Escher in The Palace showcased the finest optical glass from the Stichting Modern Glas collection, in collaboration with Kunstmuseum Den Haag. The glass sculptures from the Czech Republic and Slovakia magnify, reduce and colour everything around them, and literally give us a new perspective on the world. Optical glass is usually used to make mirrors, spectacles and lenses, but Czech and Slovak artists conjure it into beautifully harmonious works of art. The abstract geometric objects play with reflection and light, assuming a different form from every angle. They also trick our eyes, just as M.C. Escher’s work surprises and amazes us every time we look at it.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia have a long tradition of glassmaking, with a lively glassmaking industry that is known for its craftsmanship and precision. In former Czechoslovakia, glass was used mainly as a material for applied art, until Czech artist Václav Cígler established the Glass in Architecture department at the art academy in Bratislava in 1965. Cígler trained a new generation of glass artists and set up his own movement in international glass art. The artists of his ‘school’ were guided more by the creative process, producing autonomous sculptures in optical glass that are full of light and motion.

The abstract geometric optical glass art of Václav Cígler (b. 1929), Lubomír Arzt (1946-2015), Miloš Balgavý (b. 1955), Pavol Hlôška (b. 1953), Zora Palová (b. 1947) and Štěpán Pala (b. 1944) was on display in several places at Emma the Queen Mother’s former winter palace from 7 July to 8 November 2020 for everyone to see and admire, from all angles.

Two artists, two disciplines, but a shared fondness for enigmatic architecture. In winter 2019/2020, Escher in The Palace brought together the work of artist M.C. Escher (1898 – 1972) and the sculptures of contemporary artist and architect David Umemoto (1975) for the first time.

Canadian artist David Umemoto balances on the line between sculpture and architecture. He began his career as an architect. For years, he worked on architectural projects, but gradually gained an interest in working on a smaller scale, namely creating objects. A year in Indonesia officially steered him in a different direction, when he shifted his focus from architecture to sculpture.

Nowadays, David Umemoto’s sleek concrete sculptures of buildings and monuments push the envelope of perfection in both disciplines: stairs lead nowhere and walls stop in the wrong place. The architectural elements of the buildings are difficult to place. In the beginning of his career, Umemoto’s mysterious objects were inspired by the architecture and primitive arts of Africa, Polynesia and North and South America. They appeal to the imagination: Is this building really found in the jungle of South America or only in an Escherian fantasy world?

The art of both Giorgio de Chirico and Giovanni Battista Piranesi is an important source of inspiration to David Umemoto, who also finds inspiration in the works of M.C. Escher. Umemoto admires the skills with which Escher moulds the space in his prints to his own purposes. In the exhibition at Escher in The Palace, the museum brings together the graphic works of art and sculptures of two inspiring artists. Both artists are masters in their disciplines in creating a mysterious world in which they happily disregard all the customary rules of architecture. Both are architects of the impossible.

David Umemoto is represented by Modern Shapes Gallery in Antwerp.

With over 120 prints in our museum, the most famous works from the oeuvre of M.C. Escher (1898-1972) are permanently on display at Escher in The Palace. These magnificent prints are being exhibited in a regal setting: the former winter palace of Queen Emma, the Queen Mother.

Discover the artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, a man who never lost his fascination with the wonderful world around him. The Netherlands’ most famous printmaker enthrals people young and old with his imaginative worlds in which illusion and amazement are put centre stage.

Escher’s development as an artist is a key focus in the museum. His early work consists of detailed woodcuts of people and unrivalled depictions of nature and landscapes, in which he explores his talent. In his later work he develops his revolutionary tessellations, metamorphoses and optical illusions. His playful prints delight the eye and have been a rich source of inspiration for mathematicians, film-makers and architects throughout the world for many years.

Learn about Escher’s life and work in our film room, discover how he went about creating his extraordinary graphic work and delve deep into his history through photos and an interactive timeline.

The master, the king, the magician

Admire Escher’s masterpieces which are the crowning glory of his impressive oeuvre. Consider in this regard an early highlight like Day and Night (1938), in which he transforms a rural Dutch landscape into flying birds. Or the timeless print Relativity (1953), in which he defies gravity and multiple realities seem to coexist. And, of course, the jewel in the crown: the seven-metre-long Metamorphosis III (1967-1968), which represents the ultimate interpretation of his key themes: eternity and infinity. Discover Escher as a master of the metamorphosis, the king of illusion and a magician on paper.

Experience the world of Escher

On the second floor you will learn to see like Escher did, in the interactive exhibition ‘Through Escher’s Eyes’. Puzzle with your eyes, discover with your hands and become part of Escher’s perception. Immerse yourself in his illusion and become giant or tiny in just a few seconds. Get even closer to Escher by making your own tessellation or playing with impossible figures.

Our Op-art room tests the bounds of credibility: the artworks seem to be moving… and yet it is your own movement that is creating this illusion. In the remarkable installation Langenfelder Lichtwand for Escher in The Palace by German Zero-group artist Otto Piene, you will become part of a spectacle caused by the continuously moving light. An unforgettable experience.

Visiting a Royal Palace

Queen Emma, the Queen Mother (1858-1934) lived and worked in this former palace from 1901 until she passed away. She also received her official guests and family here. After her death the palace was used by Queens Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix. Over two centuries old, the palace is situated in historic The Hague’s museum quarter on Lange Voorhout, one of the most beautiful avenues in the Netherlands. It is the only public building in The Hague where you can still experience the royal palace atmosphere.

Furthermore, the palace features a unique parquet floor by the American minimal artist Donald Judd and is lit by the spectacular chandeliers by Hans van Bentem.