Here we tap into dates from M.C. Eschers life and work, jumping through time but always in the now. All year round you can enjoy background stories, anecdotes and trivia about this fascinating artist.
‘I am thinking about a very attractive commission which the Post Office might offer me.’
Escher writes these words to his eldest son George in Canada in June 1967. The question was whether he could expand his four-metre long Metamorphosis II (1939-1940) by another three metres. For the new post office in The Hague this new seven-metre-long Metamorphosis III would be expanded to 48 metres and painted on linen.
Escher visited Sicily for the first time in the spring of 1932, together with his friend and painter Giuseppe Haas-Triverio. From Palermo they travelled to the coast, circled Mount Etna, to Randazzo and visited the lava formations at Bronte. In just over a month, Escher made 23 drawings and took numerous photos.
"feverish nights, lying in bed as a child, while my father read to me by the light of a half-veiled lamp in an attempt to lull me to sleep."George mentions in particular the story of ‘The Lost Princess’ which provided the inspiration for the print Castle in the Air, from January 1928. Former curator Mickey Piller explores the origins of this remarkable woodcut.