Escher today

On 31 May 1919 M.C. Escher was determined unfit for military service. As a result, his plan to finish his secondary school exams, which he had failed the year before, could not be executed. While in service he would start his engineering studies in Delft, but due to this rejection, he would never be able to take exams there. Since he lacked the interest to become an architect, this didn't bother him too much. He was an artist, that became increasingly clear to him.

May 1954 sees Escher working on Rind. He was inspired by The Invisible Man, an 1897 science fiction novel by the British author H.G. Wells. In it, an invisible man can only be seen by means of the bandages that cover him. Escher changed the man into a woman. To find the right composition, Escher used his wife Jetta as a model. In 1954, he first carried out two studies, reaching a final result in May 1955.

Encounter, from May 1944, and Reptiles are the better-known works Escher produced during the war. He describes Encounter like this:

'Out from a grey surface of a back wall there develops a complicated pattern of white and black humanoid figures. And since people who desire to live need at least a floor to walk on, a floor has been designed for them, with a circular gap in the middle so that as much as possible can still be seen on the back wall. In this way they are forced not only to walk in a ring, but also to meet each other in the foreground: a white optimist and a black pessimist shaking hands with one another.'

During 1937, 1938 and 1939 Escher becomes increasingly fascinated by tessellations, cycles and transformations. He produces Metamorphosis I, Development I, Day and Night, Cycle, Sky and Water I and II and Development II. Most of them are woodcuts. Cycle, from May 1938, is the only lithograph.

After having travelled along the Italian coast on the freighter Rossini by himself, Escher’s wife Jetta joins him on 11 May 1936. They spend a day in Genoa, they visit Pisa and on 13 May they travel on to Savona. Because the ship did not stay long, Escher does not disembark. He takes a photo of a sailing boat that he sees through the porthole of his cabin.

In 1946, Escher delved into the mezzotint, a technique that was new to him. The possibility of obtaining extremely subtle gradations of light and dark with this technique fascinated him.

Early 1955 Escher worked on an assignment for a liberation print to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the liberation on 5 May that year. He had mixed feelings about it, he wrote in a letter to his son Arthur on 22 January.

On 27 April 1936 Escher embarks upon the freighter Rossini from the Italian town of Fiume. Before that he travelled from his residence Chateau d’Oeux to Trieste by train. With the Rossini he travels to Venice, Ancona and Bari. From 2 to 4 May he visits the Sicilian harbour town of Catania.

From 2 to 16 May 1926 Escher exhibited 22 woodcuts and around 40 drawings at the Palazetto Venezia in Rome. For the exhibition, he created this announcement card.

On 27 April 1932 Escher was in the Sicilian town Napels, with his travel companion Giuseppe Haas-Triverio. They left Rome on the 22nd after which they travelled to Palermo via Naples. In four weeks they toured the island intensively. They finally returned to the Italian capital on May 20, filled with impressions, a folder with freshly made drawings, and many photos. Some of these he would use later to create new prints. The photo taken in Patti, many other ones and several drawings, woodcuts and lithographs featured in our exhibition Escher, close up.