The autumn and winter months of 1930-1931 were a productive period for Escher. In the spring he travelled through the Italian provinces of Campania and Calabria, together with his friends Giuseppe Haas-Triverio, Roberto Schiess and Jean Roussett. From October to February he developed his impressions into a series of woodcuts and lithographs. 13 in total. The woodcut depicting Palizzi in Calabria is the first of these series.

Escher visited the desolate island of Corsica several times. He was fascinated by the rock formations, the dizzying elevations, the mountain ranges, chasms, rivers, bays and coastline. He did many drawings and took many photos and his travels gave rise to a series of woodcuts, wood engravings and lithographs.

It is World Animal Day, so we are focusing on animals in Escher’s work. It is not hard to find one. There are plenty of animals in his prints, especially in his many tessellations. He interconnects birds, fish, lizards, horses, dogs, butterflies and all kinds of insects in countless ways.

Due to the latest change of displayed works, a number of works that are part of a series can now be seen in Room 1: nine (of the 25 in total) woodcuts from the Emblemata series Escher produced in 1931. Earlier we showed you Toadstool from this series, today we focus your attention on Butterfly. In this woodcut Escher puts a butterfly in a richly ornamented palette of flowers and plants.

In September 1941 Escher started on his woodcut Fish, the first work he produced after moving to Baarn. In his diary he wrote about the process:

12 Sep: 'At night fish woodcut idea.'
13 Sep: 'Started on it.'
07 Oct: 'Started on 1st block Fish.'
16 Oct: 'Started on 2nd block Fish.'
23 Oct: 'Started on 3rd block Fish.'

The liberation of the Netherlands in May 1945 was personally as well as artistically liberating for Maurits Escher. In the second half of that year he produced Balcony, Doric Columns, Three Spheres I and a woodcut for the 'Tijdelijke Academie (Temporary Academy)' in Eindhoven. He was also working on the lithograph Magic Mirror, which would be completed in January 1946. In Three Spheres I, from September that year, he very precisely demonstrates how to evoke a three-dimensional form on a flat surface.

In September 1935 Maurits Cornelis Escher made a woodcut for his cousin Anne Escher (1895-1971), the founder and director of engineering company Ir. Escher's Constructiewerkplaatsen en Machinefabriek N.V. The company, founded in 1925, would grow into a major metalworking company, which by the 1950s had the largest factory hall in The Hague.
In 1930 the company started using stick welding. Maurits Escher used the welder with his distinctive hood for the woodcut, which was to be used as a logo for his cousin.

In September 1956 Escher designed a New Year’s card for the Dutch postal service (PTT). He would reuse the motif of the winged envelopes (in slightly altered form) when the PTT approached him again in 1967 asking him to ‘extend’ his Metamorphosis II from the existing 153 inches to 268 inches. For the new post office in The Hague this new Metamorphosis III would be blown up to a giant 157 feet. So Escher had to come up with another 115 inches.

On 2 September 1954, the International Congress of Mathematicians opened in Amsterdam. This is the largest mathematical conference in the world, held once every four years, at which the famous Fields medal is awarded. On the initiative of the ICM, an extensive solo exhibition with Escher's work was held in the Stedelijk Museum. The organising committee chaired by Amsterdam professor of Mathematics N.G. de Bruijn put Escher on a pedestal as a unique link between art and mathematics.