Letters full of admiration: a special loan

During his lifetime, M.C. Escher received several letters from enthusiasts sharing their admiration for his work. Not all of these have survived, which makes it very special when relatives lend such letters to a museum. The granddaughter of Hendrik Dekker temporarily loans his carefully written letter about the print Reptiles (1943) and Escher's reaction to it to Escher in The Palace. The handwritten correspondence will be on display from 18 March to 14 September 2025.

In Reptiles (1943), Escher brings one of his tessellations to life, as a three-dimensional reptile emerges from an open sketchbook containing two-dimensional images of reptiles. The creature climbs onto a book, follows the path of its life, pauses for breath on a dodecahedron, and then returns to the book, where it becomes a two-dimensional drawing once more. As to a specific detail, he writes: ‘N.B. The booklet Job has nothing to do with the Bible, but contains Belgian cigarette papers.’ So that there cannot be any confusion about that. This cycle was interpreted by some, during Escher’s own lifetime, as a reference to reincarnation. The more well known his work became, the more people wrote to him with such ideas about his work. His fame grew rapidly after the major retrospective of his work at the Haags Gemeentemuseum (now: Kunstmuseum Den Haag) in 1968 and an article by journalist Bibeb published in the Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland that same year. The exhibition was very well received, the reviews were unanimously positive and soon more copies of the catalogue had to be printed.n.

In Mr Dekker's letter, written in June 1971, he describes being at the exhibition in The Hague and was fascinated by Reptiles, a reproduction of which he had at home. He complimented Escher profusely and alluded to a deeper meaning in the print, ‘by way of appreciation for what your creation has given me’. Dekker thought Escher’s statements were too modest. Escher responded in a brief note, saying that he had read Mr Dekker’s free interpretation of his work with great interest. He was glad that his work ‘prompted such cheerful and appreciative contemplation’. He had received a lot of response to Reptiles and said that everyone was right in their own way, despite the fact that their views did not coincide with his own. Full transcripts of the letters are at the bottom of this article.

This exchange of letters contains a polite exchange of views, but Escher did not always send such a warm response. He had previously been approached by Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones, who requested permission to use one of his prints on the cover of their new LP. He did not enjoy their music, and the manner in which he was addressed also offended him. Jagger had opened with 'Dear Maurits', and in Escher’s response to the band’s assistant, he wrote, ‘By the way, please tell Mr. Jagger I am not Maurits to him, but Very sincerely, M.C. ESCHER’.

Escher wrote his postcard to Mr Dekker from the Rosa Spier Huis, the residential community of artists and academics in Laren where he was living at the time. He was convalescing after surgery earlier that year. Unfortunately, he never actually made a full recovery, and died shortly afterwards at the Diaconessenhuis hospital in Hilversum.

Transcripts