Maurits Cornelis Escher
(1898-1972) is one of
the world's most famous
graphic artists. His art is
enjoyed by millions of
people all over the world,
as can be seen on the
many web sites on the
internet.
He is most famous for
his so-called impossible
structures, such as
Ascending and
Descending, Relativity,
his Transformation
Prints, such as
Metamorphosis I,
Metamorphosis II and
Metamorphosis III, Sky
& Water I or Reptiles.
But he also made some
wonderful, more realistic
work during the time he
lived and traveled in
Italy.
Castrovalva for example,
where one already can
see Escher's fascination
for high and low, close
by and far away. The
lithograph Atrani, a
small town on the Amalfi
Coast was made in
1931, but comes back
for example, in his
masterpiece
Metamorphosis I and II
M.C. Escher, during his
lifetime, made 448
lithographs, woodcuts
and wood engravings
and over 2000 drawings
and sketches. Like
some of his famous
predecessors, -
Michelangelo, Leonardo
da Vinci, Dürer and
Holbein-, M.C. Escher
was left-handed.
Apart from being a
graphic artist, M.C.
Escher illustrated
books, designed
tapestries, postage
stamps and murals. He
was born in
Leeuwarden, the
Netherlands, as the
fourth and youngest son
of a civil engineer. After
5 years the family
moved to Arnhem where
Escher spent most of
his youth. After failing
his high school exams,
Maurits ultimately was
enrolled in the School
for Architecture and
Decorative Arts in
Haarlem
After only one week, he
informed his father that
he would rather study
graphic art instead of
architecture, as he had
shown his drawings and
linoleum cuts to his
graphic teacher Samuel
Jessurun de Mesquita,
who encouraged him to
continue with graphic
arts.
After finishing school, he
traveled extensively
through Italy, where he
met his wife Jetta
Umiker, whom he
married in 1924. They
settled in Rome, where
they stayed until 1935.
During these 11 years,
Escher would travel
each year throughout
Italy, drawing and
sketching for the various
prints he would make
when he returned home.
Many of these sketches
he would later use for
various other lithographs
and/or woodcuts and
wood engravings, for
example the background
in the lithograph
Waterfall stems from his
Italian period, or the
trees reflecting in the
woodcut Puddle, which
are the same trees
Escher used in his
woodcut "Pineta of
Calvi", which he made in
1932.
M.C. Escher became
fascinated by the regular
Division of the Plane,
when he first visited the
Alhambra, a fourteen
century Moorish castle
in Granada, Spain in
1922.
During the years in
Switzerland and
throughout the Second
World War, he
vigorously pursued his
hobby, by drawing 62 of
the total of 137 Regular
Division Drawings he
would make in his
lifetime.
He would extend his
passion for the Regular
Division of the Plane, by
using some of his
drawings as the basis
for yet another hobby,
carving beech wood
spheres.
He played with
architecture, perspective
and impossible spaces.
His art continues to
amaze and wonder
millions of people all
over the world. In his
work we recognize his
keen observation of the
world around us and the
expressions of his own
fantasies. M.C. Escher
shows us that reality is
wondrous,
comprehensible and
fascinating.