M.C. Escher profile picture

M.C. Escher

About Me

M. C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints which feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tessellations.
(Self Portrait in a Chair 1920 woodcut)

- Early life -


Maurits Cornelis, or Mauk as he came to be nicknamed, was born in Leeuwarden (Friesland), the Netherlands. He was the youngest son of civil engineer George Arnold Escher and his second wife, Sara Gleichman. In 1903, the family moved to Arnhem where he took carpentry and piano lessons until he was thirteen years old.
From 1903 until 1918 he attended primary and secondary school. Though he excelled at drawing, his grades were generally poor, and he was required to repeat the course twice. In 1919, Escher attended the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. He briefly studied architecture, but switched to decorative arts and studied under Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, a Jew with Portuguese ancestors with whom he would remain friends for years. In 1922 Escher left the school, having gained experience in drawing and making woodcuts.

- Later life -


In 1922, a crucial year in his life, Escher traveled through Italy (Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra, Siena) and Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Granada). He was impressed by the Italian countryside and by the Alhambra, a fourteenth-century Moorish castle in Granada, Spain. He came back to Italy regularly in the following years. It was in Italy that he first met Jetta Umiker, the woman whom he married in 1924. The young couple settled down in Rome and stayed there until 1935, when the political climate under Mussolini became unbearable. The family next moved to Château-d'Œx, Switzerland where they remained for two years.
Escher, who had been very fond of and inspired by the landscape in Italy, was decidedly unhappy in Switzerland, so in 1937, the family moved again, to Ukkel, a small town near Brussels, Belgium. World War II forced them to move for the last time in January 1941, this time to Baarn, the Netherlands, where Escher lived until 1970.
On April 30, 1955, Escher was awarded a Knighthood of the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Most of Escher's better-known pictures date from this period. The sometimes cloudy, cold, wet weather of the Netherlands allowed him to focus intently on his works, and only during 1962, when he endured surgery, was there a time when no new images were created.
Escher moved to the Rosa-Spier house in Laren in 1970, a retirement home for artists where he could have a studio of his own. He died at the home on 27 March 1972, at 73 years of age.
print gallery
still life with relecting globe
tetrahedral planetoid
ascending and descending
relativity
concave and convex
dragon
drawing hands
reptiles

My Interests


stars

high and low

three worlds

hand with reflecting globe

three spheres II

tower of babel

puddle

sky and water I

rind

moebiusband II

g. a. escher

dewdrop

house of stairs

castrovalva

dream

Television:

..

Books:

* M.C. Escher, The Graphic Work of M.C. Escher, Ballantine, 1971. Includes Escher's own commentary.
* M.C. Escher, The Fantastic World of M.C. Escher, Video collection of examples of the development of his art, and interviews, Director, Michele Emmer.
* Locher, J.L. (2000). The Magic of M. C. Escher. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-6720-0.
* Ernst, Bruno; Escher, M.C. (1995). The Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher (Taschen Series). TASCHEN America Llc. ISBN 1-886155-00-3 Escher's art with commentary by Ernst on Escher's life and art, including several pages on his use of polyhedra.
* Abrams (1995). The M.C. Escher Sticker Book. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-2638-5 .
* "Escher, M. C.." The World Book Encyclopedia. 10th ed. 2001.
* O'Connor, J. J. "Escher." Escher. 01 2000. University of St Andrews, Scotland. 17 June 2005.
* Schattschneider, Doris and Walker, Wallace. M. C. Escher Kaleidocycles, Pomegranate Communications; Petaluma, CA, 1987. ISBN 0-906212-28-6.
* Schattschneider, Doris. M.C. Escher : visions of symmetry, New York, N.Y. : Harry N. Abrams, 2004. ISBN 0-8109-4308-5.
* M.C. Escher's legacy: a centennial celebration; collection of articles coming from the M.C. Escher Centennial Conference, Rome, 1998 / Doris Schattschneider, Michele Emmer (editors). Berlin; London: Springer-Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3-540-42458-X (alk. paper), ISBN 3-540-42458-X (hbk).
* M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work; By J. L. Locher, Amsterdam 1981.
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My Blog

snow

1936, lithograph
Posted by M.C. Escher on Fri, 18 May 2007 12:57:00 PST