M C ESCHER

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M C ESCHER

• M C ESCHER

1898-1971
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Castrovalva 1930 Lithograph
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Sarah Gleichman Escher, had three sons of which
Maurits (called Mauk for short) was the youngest.
His father, George, was a civil engineer. The
Escher family was living in Leeuwarden in 1898,
where George served as Chief Engineer for a
government bureau. The family lived in a grand
house named "Princessehof," which would later
become a museum and host exhibitions of M.C.
Escher's works. Young M.C. Escher moved with his
family to Arnhem. He attended elementary and
secondary school there, and also in the seaside
town of Zandvoort, where he lived for a while to
improve his health. In 1907, he started learning
carpentry and piano. In secondary school, his
marks were poor except in drawing. His art
teacher took and interest in his drawing talent,
and taught him to make linocuts. He failed his
final exam and thus never officially graduated.
In 1913, M.C. Escher met his lifelong friend Bas
Kist in religious school (which he attended at
his parent's direction, even though he wasn't
very religious). Kist was also interested in
printing techniques, and may have encouraged M.C.
to make his first linoleum cut works.
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Eye 1946 Mezzotint
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In 1918, Escher began private lessons and studies
in architecture at the Higher Technology School
in Delft. He managed to get a deferment on
military service in order to study, but poor
health prevented him from keeping up with the
military program. He was rejected for military
service in 1919, and as a result could not
continue school (he had never successfully
graduated from high school). During this
difficult period, Escher did many drawings, and
also began using woodcuts as a medium. Still
trying to pursue a career in architecture, M.C.
Escher next moved to Haarlem Studies as the
School for Architecture and Decorative Arts. He
began the full-time study of graphic and
decorative arts in the fall of 1919.. In 1921,
Escher and his parents visited the Riviera and
Italy. Unimpressed by the tropical flowers of the
Mediterranean climate, he made detailed drawings
of cactus and olive trees. He also sought out
high places and dramatic vistas to sketch, some
of his later works were influenced by these
sights. Escher started to experiment with themes
that would influence his later works.
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Sky and Water 1938 Woodcut
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In 1922, in search of fresh inspiration, he
decided to go to Italy. He returned to Holland
after only a couple of weeks in Florence, and
Escher went on to San Gimignano. He did a great
deal of serious drawing here and in the next few
towns he visited Volterra and Siena. He spent
all of the spring of 1922 roaming the Italian
countryside, drawing landscapes, plants, and even
insects. In Assissi he met a fellow Dutchman, the
painter Gerretsen. The two met occasionally over
the next few years. Returning home in June,
Escher found that he could not be happy and
productive in his old environment. He seized his
first opportunity to return to southern Europe,
taking a freighter to Spain with some friends,
and saving expenses by caring for their two small
children on the trip. It was on this trip that he
first saw the phenomenon of a phosphorescent sea,
so beautifully expressed later in his woodcut of
the same name. In Spain, he saw his first
bullfight an "off-putting and barbaric" event.
He visited Madrid and its famous museum, the
Prado, but was unimpressed by many of the
paintings there. Surprisingly, he also attended
another bullfight. He dodged large rats to find a
place to draw in Toledo. Missing an express
train, he spent 24 hours on a local train to get
to Granada. In Granada, Escher visited the
Alhambra, and saw examples of Moorish (Arabic)
decorative styles. He studied these, and copied
one.
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Three Worlds 1955 Lithograph
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Escher traveled from Spain to Italy by ship, and
enjoyed the voyage immensely, splitting his time
between drawing the ship and playing cards with
the officers. After traveling around Italy, he
settled in Siena for several months. During this
time he worked very hard and enjoyed himself
immensely, calling the town and atmosphere
"blessed." March of 1923 found Escher still
working hard and traveling around Italy. At the
end of the month, a Swiss family took up
residence at the pension where Escher was
staying. Over the next few months, Escher found
himself drawn to the daughter of the family,
Jetta Umiker. Escher traveled around Italy some
more, and in August of 1923 held his first
one-man show in Siena. He paid very little
attention to this important milestone in his
artistic career, he was concentrating on Jetta.
In mid-August he proposed to her, and on August
28 arrived in Zurich to formally meet the family.
They decided to marry and live in Italy.
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Dewdrop 1948 Mezzotint
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1924 was a very busy year for M.C. Escher. He
held his first one-man show in his native Holland
in February. At the end of 1924, Escher and his
new bride purchased a house under construction in
Frascati, a small town outside of Rome. Shortly
after Escher moved into his new home outside of
Rome, his brother was killed in a mountaineering
accident, and Escher had to go to the site to
identify the body. After this tragedy, Escher
produced his famous Days of Creation woodcuts.
In late July, George Escher was born. It is a
measure of Escher's growing fame that both King
Emmanuel and Mussolini attended the boy's
christening. Living in Rome, happy with his wife
and child, the late 1920s were a productive
period for Escher. He exhibited works in many
shows in Holland, and by 1929 was so popular that
he was able to hold five shows in Holland and
Switzerland that year.     It was during this
period that his pictures were first labeled as
mechanical and "reasoned." Pictures from this
period include some of Escher's most striking
landscapes, and also some stark commercial
illustrations. The very famous lithographic of a
mountainside village, Castrovalva, was completed
in February 1930. Also, Escher's son Arthur was
born in 1930.
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Gravitation 1952 Lithograph
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           It was during this period that his
pictures were first labeled as mechanical and
"reasoned." Pictures from this period include
some of Escher's most striking landscapes, and
also some stark commercial illustrations. The
very famous lithographic of a mountainside
village, Castrovalva, was completed in February
1930. Also, Escher's son Arthur was born in
1930. In 1934, Escher and his family went to the
seashore, and then Escher and his wife continued
on to Belgium, Ghent, and Bruges. In the
meantime, his work was doing well in the US. His
print Nonza won third prize at the Exhibition of
Contemporary Prints at the Art Institute of
Chicago. The Art Institute also purchased the
print, which was Escher's first sale to a museum
in America.
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In 1936, Escher visited Alhambra for the second
time, again studying the Moorish tiles. This
visit, plus his departure from Italy, can be seen
as forces which pushed him in new directions. In
a 1960 book introduction, he wrote the following.
The fact that, from 1938 onwards, I
concentrated more on the interpretation of
personal ideas was primarily the result of my
departure from Italy. In Switzerland, Belgium,
and Holland where I successfully established
myself, I found the outward appearance of
landscapes and architecture to be less striking
than those which are particularly to be seen in
the southern part of Italy. Thus I felt compelled
to withdraw from the more or less direct and
true-to-life illustrating of my
surroundings. These personal circumstances,
caused in part by the brewing war, were in large
part responsible for Escher turning inward for
vision. In mid-1937, the Escher family resettled
in Ukkel, a suburb of Brussels, Belgium.
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Hand with Reflecting Globe 1935 Lithograph
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In May 1940, the Nazi Army invaded Holland and
Belgium Brussels and its suburbs were occupied
on the 17th. At the end of May, Escher's mother
died. Due to the invasion, he missed her funeral
at The Hague. Escher spent the rest of 1940
settling his mother's affairs, and executing a
commission to decorate the town hall of Leiden.
He and Jetta found a house in Baarn, Holland, and
moved there in February of 1941.
                         The Nazi persecution of
the Jews touched Escher in a very personal way.
His old teacher, Samuel de Mesquita, a Jew, was
taken away by the Nazis in January of 1944, and
was killed. Escher helped to transfer Mesquita's
works at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. He
kept for himself a sketch that bore the imprint
of a German boot, and kept it with his drawing
supplies for the rest of his life. In 1946, he
organized a memorial showing for Mesquita at the
Stedelijk. Immediately after the war ended,
Escher participated in a show of works by artists
who had refused to collaborate with the Nazi
regime. Afterwards, he earned several new
commissions, including one to make 400 copies of
one of his prints for distribution to schools.
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Puddle 1952 Woodcut
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Also during the early 1950s, Escher gained
popularity as a lecturer. He was in demand both
for artistic audiences, and for scientific ones.
He also held his first one-man exhibition in the
United States. It was held in Washington, and
raised US awareness of Escher's work and sold
many prints. Due to the rush of work, Escher
completed only two new works in 1954.
Drawing Hands 1948 Lithograph
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During the month of March, 1972, Escher's health
deteriorated. His family gathered around him,
taking turns sitting by his hospital bed. On
March 27, 1972, he died, at the age of 73.
Concave and Convex 1955 Lithograph
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Cycle 1938 Lithograph
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Reptiles 1943 Lithograph