Maurits Cornelis Escher (/ˈɛʃər/;[1]Dutch:[ˈmʌurɪtskɔrˈneːlɪsˈɛɕər]; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who madewoodcuts,lithographs, andmezzotints, many of which wereinspired by mathematics.Despite wide popular interest, for most of his life Escher was neglected in the art world, even in his native Netherlands. He was 70 before a retrospective exhibition was held. In the late twentieth century, he became more widely appreciated, and in the twenty-first century he has been celebrated in exhibitions around the world.
Early in his career, he drew inspiration from nature, making studies of insects, landscapes, and plants such aslichens, all of which he used as details in his artworks. He traveled in Italy and Spain, sketching buildings, townscapes, architecture and the tilings of theAlhambra andthe Mezquita of Cordoba, and became steadily more interested in theirmathematical structure.
Escher's art became well known among scientists and mathematicians, and in popular culture, especially after it was featured byMartin Gardner in his April 1966Mathematical Games column inScientific American. Apart from being used in a variety of technical papers, his work has appeared on the covers of many books and albums. He was one of the major inspirations forDouglas Hofstadter'sPulitzer Prize–winning 1979 bookGödel, Escher, Bach.
Maurits Cornelis[a] Escher was born on 17 June 1898 inLeeuwarden,Friesland, the Netherlands, in a house that forms part of thePrincessehof Ceramics Museum today. He was the youngest son of the civil engineerGeorge Arnold Escher and his second wife, Sara Gleichman. In 1903, the family moved toArnhem, where he attended primary and secondary school until 1918.[2][3] Known to his friends and family as "Mauk", he was a sickly child and was placed in a special school at the age of seven; he failed the second grade.[4] Although he excelled at drawing, his grades were generally poor. He tookcarpentry and piano lessons until he was thirteen years old.[2][3]
Moorishtessellations including this one at theAlhambra inspired Escher's work with tilings of the plane. He made sketches of this and other Alhambra patterns in 1936.[6]
In 1922, an important year of his life, Escher traveled through Italy, visitingFlorence,San Gimignano,Volterra,Siena, andRavello. In the same year, he traveled through Spain, visitingMadrid,Toledo, andGranada.[2] He was impressed by the Italian countryside and, in Granada, by theMoorish architecture of the fourteenth-centuryAlhambra. The intricate decorative designs of the Alhambra, based ongeometricalsymmetries featuring interlocking repetitive patterns in the coloured tiles or sculpted into the walls and ceilings, triggered his interest in the mathematics oftessellation and became a powerful influence on his work.[7][8]
Escher's painstaking[b][9] study of the same Moorish tiling in the Alhambra, 1936, demonstrates his growing interest in tessellation.
Escher returned to Italy and lived inRome from 1923 to 1935. While in Italy, Escher met Jetta Umiker – a Swiss woman, like himself attracted to Italy – whom he married in 1924. The couple settled in Rome where their first son, Giorgio (George) Arnaldo Escher, named after his grandfather, was born. Escher and Jetta later had two more sons – Arthur and Jan.[2][3]
He travelled frequently, visiting (among other places)Viterbo in 1926, theAbruzzi in 1927 and 1929,Corsica in 1928 and 1933,Calabria in 1930, theAmalfi coast in 1931 and 1934, andGargano andSicily in 1932 and 1935. The townscapes and landscapes of these places feature prominently in his artworks. In May and June 1936, Escher travelled back to Spain, revisiting the Alhambra and spending days at a time making detailed drawings of its mosaic patterns. It was here that he became fascinated, to the point of obsession, with tessellation, explaining:[5]
It remains an extremely absorbing activity, a real mania to which I have become addicted, and from which I sometimes find it hard to tear myself away.[9]
The sketches he made in the Alhambra formed a major source for his work from that time on.[9] He studied the architecture of theMezquita, the Moorish mosque of Cordoba. This turned out to be the last of his long study journeys; after 1937, his artworks were created in his studio rather than in the field. His art correspondingly changed sharply from being mainly observational, with a strong emphasis on the realistic details of things seen in nature and architecture, to being the product of his geometric analysis and his visual imagination. All the same, even his early work already shows his interest in the nature of space, the unusual, perspective, and multiple points of view.[5][9]
Later life
In 1935, the political climate in Italy underMussolini became unacceptable to Escher. He had no interest in politics, finding it impossible to involve himself with any ideals other than the expressions of his own concepts through his own particular medium, but he was averse to fanaticism and hypocrisy. When his eldest son, George, was forced at the age of nine to wear aBallila uniform in school, the family left Italy and moved toChâteau-d'Œx, Switzerland, where they remained for two years.[10]
The Netherlands post office had Escher design asemi-postal stamp for the "Air Fund" (Dutch:Het Nationaal Luchtvaartfonds) in 1935, and again in 1949 he designed Dutch stamps. These were for the 75th anniversary of theUniversal Postal Union; a different design was used bySuriname and theNetherlands Antilles for the same commemoration.[11]
Escher, who had been very fond of and inspired by the landscapes in Italy, was decidedly unhappy in Switzerland. In 1937, the family moved again, toUccle (Ukkel), a suburb ofBrussels, Belgium.[2][3]World War II forced them to move in January 1941, this time toBaarn, Netherlands, where Escher lived until 1970.[2] Most of Escher's best-known works date from this period. The sometimes cloudy, cold, and wet weather of the Netherlands allowed him to focus intently on his work.[2] After 1953, Escher lectured widely. A planned series of lectures in North America in 1962 was cancelled after an illness, and he stopped creating artworks for a time,[2] but the illustrations and text for the lectures were later published as part of the bookEscher on Escher.[12] He was awarded the Knighthood of theOrder of Orange-Nassau in 1955;[2] in 1967, he was made an Officer.[13]
In July 1969, he finished his last work, a large woodcut with threefoldrotational symmetry calledSnakes,[c] in which snakes wind through a pattern of linked rings. These shrink to infinity toward both the center and the edge of a circle. It was exceptionally elaborate, being printed using three blocks, each rotated three times about the center of the image and precisely aligned to avoid gaps and overlaps, for a total of nine print operations for each finished print. The image encapsulates Escher's love of symmetry; of interlocking patterns; and, at the end of his life, of his approach to infinity.[14][15][16] The care that Escher took in creating and printing this woodcut can be seen in a video recording.[17]
Escher moved to theRosa Spier Huis inLaren in 1970, an artists' retirement home in which he had his own studio. He died in a hospital inHilversum on 27 March 1972, aged 73.[2][3] He is buried at the New Cemetery in Baarn.[18][19]
Much of Escher's work is inescapably mathematical. This has caused a disconnect between his fame among mathematicians and the general public, and the lack of esteem with which he has been viewed in the art world.[20][21] His originality and mastery of graphic techniques are respected, but his works have been thought too intellectual and insufficiently lyrical. Movements such asconceptual art have, to a degree, reversed the art world's attitude to intellectuality and lyricism, but this did not rehabilitate Escher, because traditional critics still disliked his narrative themes and his use of perspective. However, these same qualities made his work highly attractive to the public.[20]
Escher is not the first artist to explore mathematical themes: J. L. Locher, a previous director of theKunstmuseum inThe Hague, pointed out thatParmigianino (1503–1540) had explored spherical geometry and reflection in his 1524Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror, depicting his own image in a curved mirror, whileWilliam Hogarth's 1754Satire on False Perspective foreshadows Escher's playful exploration of errors in perspective.[22][23] Another early artistic forerunner isGiovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778), whose dark "fantastical"[24] prints such asThe Drawbridge in hisCarceri ("Prisons") sequence depict perspectives of complex architecture with many stairs and ramps, peopled by walking figures.[24][25] Escher greatly admired Piranesi and had several of Piranesi's prints hanging in his studio.[26][27]
Only with 20th century movements such asCubism,De Stijl,Dadaism, andSurrealism did mainstream art start to explore Escher-like ways of looking at the world with multiple simultaneous viewpoints.[20] However, although Escher had much in common with, for example,Magritte's surrealism andOp art, he did not make contact with any of these movements.[21][28]
In his early years, Escher sketched landscapes and nature. He sketched insects such as ants, bees, grasshoppers, and mantises,[29] which appeared frequently in his later work. His early love ofRoman and Italian landscapes and of nature created an interest in tessellation, which he calledRegular Division of the Plane; this became the title of his 1958 book, complete with reproductions of a series of woodcuts based on tessellations of the plane, in which he described the systematic buildup of mathematical designs in his artworks. He wrote, "crystallographers have opened the gate leading to an extensive domain".[30]
Hexagonal tessellation with animals:Study of Regular Division of the Plane with Reptiles (1939). Escher reused the design in his 1943 lithographReptiles.
After his 1936 journey to theAlhambra and toLa Mezquita,Cordoba, where he sketched theMoorish architecture and the tessellated mosaic decorations,[31] Escher began to explore tessellation using geometric grids as the basis for his sketches. He then extended these to form complex interlocking designs, for example with animals such as birds, fish, and reptiles.[32] One of his first attempts at a tessellation was his pencil, India ink, and watercolourStudy of Regular Division of the Plane with Reptiles (1939), constructed on a hexagonal grid. The heads of the red, green, and white reptiles meet at a vertex; the tails, legs, and sides of the animals interlock exactly. It was used as the basis for his 1943 lithographReptiles.[33]
His first study of mathematics began with papers byGeorge Pólya[34] and by the crystallographerFriedrich Haag[35] on planesymmetry groups, sent to him by his brotherBerend, a geologist.[36] He carefully studied the 17 canonicalwallpaper groups and created periodic tilings with 43 drawings of different types of symmetry.[d] From this point on, he developed a mathematical approach to expressions of symmetry in his artworks using his own notation. Starting in 1937, he created woodcuts based on the 17 groups. HisMetamorphosis I (1937) began a series of designs that told a story through the use of pictures. InMetamorphosis I, he transformedconvex polygons into regular patterns in a plane to form a human motif. He extended the approach in his pieceMetamorphosis III, which is almost seven metres long.[9][37]
In 1941 and 1942, Escher summarised his findings for his own artistic use in a sketchbook, which he labeled (following Haag)Regelmatige vlakverdeling in asymmetrische congruente veelhoeken ("Regular division of the plane with asymmetric congruent polygons").[38] The mathematicianDoris Schattschneider unequivocally described this notebook as recording "a methodical investigation that can only be termed mathematical research."[36][39] She defined the research questions he was following as
(1) What are the possible shapes for a tile that can produce a regular division of the plane, that is, a tile that can fill the plane with its congruent images such that every tile is surrounded in the same manner? (2) Moreover, in what ways are the edges of such a tile related to each other byisometries?[36]
Although Escher did not have mathematical training – his understanding of mathematics was largely visual and intuitive – hisart had a strong mathematical component, and several of the worlds that he drew were built around impossible objects. After 1924, Escher turned to sketching landscapes in Italy andCorsica with irregularperspectives that are impossible in natural form. His first print of an impossible reality wasStill Life and Street (1937); impossible stairs and multiple visual and gravitational perspectives feature in popular works such asRelativity (1953).[e]House of Stairs (1951) attracted the interest of the mathematicianRoger Penrose and his father, the biologistLionel Penrose. In 1956, they published a paper, "Impossible Objects: A Special Type of Visual Illusion" and later sent Escher a copy. Escher replied, admiring the Penroses'continuously rising flights of steps, and enclosed a print ofAscending and Descending (1960). The paper contained the tribar orPenrose triangle, which Escher used repeatedly in his lithograph of a building that appears to function as aperpetual motion machine,Waterfall (1961).[f][40][41][42][43]
Escher was interested enough inHieronymus Bosch's 1500 triptychThe Garden of Earthly Delights to re-create part of its right-hand panel,Hell, as a lithograph in 1935. He reused the figure of aMediaeval woman in a two-pointed headdress and a long gown in his lithographBelvedere in 1958; the image is, like many of his other "extraordinary invented places",[44] peopled with "jesters,knaves, and contemplators".[44] Thus, Escher not only was interested in possible or impossible geometry but was, in his own words, a "reality enthusiast";[44] he combined "formal astonishment with a vivid and idiosyncratic vision".[44]
Escher worked primarily in the media oflithographs andwoodcuts, although the fewmezzotints he made are considered to be masterpieces of the technique. In his graphic art, he portrayed mathematical relationships among shapes, figures, and space. Integrated into his prints were mirror images of cones, spheres, cubes, rings, and spirals.[45]
Escher was fascinated by mathematical objects such as theMöbius strip, which has only one surface. His wood engravingMöbius Strip II (1963) depicts a chain of ants marching forever over what, at any one place, are the two opposite faces of the object—which are seen on inspection to be parts of the strip's single surface. In Escher's own words:[46]
An endless ring-shaped band usually has two distinct surfaces, one inside and one outside. Yet on this strip nine red ants crawl after each other and travel the front side as well as the reverse side. Therefore the strip has only one surface.[46]
The mathematical influence in his work became prominent after 1936, when, having boldly asked the Adria Shipping Company if he could sail with them as travelling artist in return for making drawings of their ships, they surprisingly agreed, and he sailed theMediterranean, becoming interested in order and symmetry. Escher described this journey, including his repeat visit to the Alhambra, as "the richest source of inspiration I have ever tapped".[9]
Escher often incorporated three-dimensional objects such as thePlatonic solids such as spheres, tetrahedrons, and cubes into his works, as well as mathematical objects such ascylinders andstellated polyhedra. In the printReptiles, he combined two- and three-dimensional images. In one of his papers, Escher emphasized the importance of dimensionality:
The flat shape irritates me — I feel like telling my objects, you are too fictitious, lying there next to each other static and frozen:do something, come off the paper and show me what you are capable of! ... So I make them come out of the plane. ... My objects ... may finally return to the plane and disappear into their place of origin.[49]
The two towers ofWaterfall's impossible building are topped with compound polyhedra, one acompound of three cubes, the other a stellatedrhombic dodecahedron now known asEscher's solid. Escher had used this solid in his 1948 woodcutStars, which contains all five of thePlatonic solids and various stellated solids, representing stars; the central solid is animated bychameleons climbing through the frame as it whirls in space. Escher possessed a 6 cmrefracting telescope and was a keen-enough amateurastronomer to have recorded observations ofbinary stars.[51][52][53]
Levels of reality
Escher's artistic expression was created from images in his mind, rather than directly from observations and travels to other countries. His interest in the multiple levels of reality in art is seen in works such asDrawing Hands (1948), where two hands are shown, each drawing the other.[g] The critic Steven Poole commented that
It is a neat depiction of one of Escher's enduring fascinations: the contrast between the two-dimensional flatness of a sheet of paper and the illusion of three-dimensional volume that can be created with certain marks. InDrawing Hands, space and the flat plane coexist, each born from and returning to the other, the black magic of the artistic illusion made creepily manifest.[44]
In 1954, the International Congress of Mathematicians met in Amsterdam, and N. G. de Bruin organised a display of Escher's work at the Stedelijk Museum for the participants. Both Roger Penrose andH. S. M. Coxeter were deeply impressed with Escher's intuitive grasp of mathematics. Inspired byRelativity, Penrose devised histribar, and his father, Lionel Penrose, devised an endless staircase. Roger Penrose sent sketches of both objects to Escher, and the cycle of invention was closed when Escher then created theperpetual motion machine ofWaterfall and the endless march of the monk-figures ofAscending and Descending.[36]In 1957 Coxeter obtained Escher's permission to use two of his drawings in his paper "Crystal symmetry and its generalizations".[36][54] He sent Escher a copy of the paper; Escher recorded that Coxeter's figure of a hyperbolic tessellation "gave me quite a shock": the infinite regular repetition of the tiles in thehyperbolic plane, growing rapidly smaller towards the edge of the circle, was precisely what he wanted to allow him to representinfinity on a two-dimensional plane.[36][55]
Escher carefully studied Coxeter's figure, marking it up to analyse the successively smaller circles[h] with which (he deduced) it had been constructed. He then constructed a diagram, which he sent to Coxeter, showing his analysis; Coxeter confirmed it was correct, but disappointed Escher with his highly technical reply. All the same, Escher persisted withhyperbolic tiling, which he called "Coxetering".[36] Among the results were the series of wood engravingsCircle Limit I–IV.[i][36] In 1959, Coxeter published his finding that these works were extraordinarily accurate: "Escher got it absolutely right to the millimeter".[56]
The Escher intellectual property is controlled by the M.C. Escher Company, while exhibitions of his artworks are managed separately by the M.C. Escher Foundation.[j]
Poster advertising the first major exhibition of Escher's work in Britain (Dulwich Picture Gallery, 14 October 2015 – 17 January 2016). The image, which shows Escher and his interest in geometric distortion and multiple levels of distance from reality, is based on hisHand with Reflecting Sphere, 1935.[64][23]
Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for a long time somewhat neglected in the art world; even in his native Netherlands, he was 70 before a retrospective exhibition was held.[44][k] In the twenty-first century, major exhibitions have been held in cities around the world.[65][66][67] An exhibition of his work in Rio de Janeiro attracted more than 573,000 visitors in 2011;[65] its daily visitor count of 9,677 made it the most visited museum exhibition of the year, anywhere in the world.[68] No major exhibition of Escher's work was held in Britain until 2015, when theScottish National Gallery of Modern Art ran one inEdinburgh from June to September 2015,[66] moving in October 2015 to theDulwich Picture Gallery, London. The exhibition poster is based onHand with Reflecting Sphere, 1935, which shows Escher in his house reflected in a handheld sphere, thus illustrating the artist, his interest inlevels of reality in art (e.g., is the hand in the foreground more real than the reflected one?),perspective, andspherical geometry.[23][64][69] The exhibition moved to Italy in 2015–2016, attracting over 500,000 visitors in Rome and Bologna,[67] and thenMilan.[70][71][72]
In 2023, theKunstmuseum in the Hague created a large retrospective of Escher, entitled 'Escher - Other World'.[73]
Doris Schattschneider identifies eleven strands of mathematical and scientific research anticipated or directly inspired by Escher. These are the classification of regular tilings using the edge relationships of tiles: two-color and two-motif tilings (counterchange symmetry or antisymmetry); color symmetry (incrystallography); metamorphosis ortopological change; covering surfaces with symmetric patterns; Escher's algorithm (for generating patterns using decorated squares); creating tile shapes; local versus global definitions of regularity; symmetry of a tiling induced by the symmetry of a tile; orderliness not induced by symmetry groups; the filling of the central void in Escher's lithographPrint Gallery by H. Lenstra and B. de Smit.[36]
Escher's fame in popular culture grew when his work was featured byMartin Gardner in his April 1966"Mathematical Games" column inScientific American.[77] Escher's works have appeared on many album covers includingThe Scaffold's 1969L the P withAscending and Descending;Mott the Hoople's eponymous 1969 record withReptiles,Beaver & Krause's 1970In A Wild Sanctuary withThree Worlds; andMandrake Memorial's 1970Puzzle withHouse of Stairs and (inside)Curl Up.[l] His works have similarly been used on many book covers, including some editions ofEdwin Abbott'sFlatland, which usedThree Spheres;E. H. Gombrich'sMeditations on a Hobby Horse withHorseman; Pamela Hall'sHeads You Lose withPlane Filling 1; Patrick A. Horton'sMastering the Power of Story withDrawing Hands;Erich Gamma et al.'sDesign Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-oriented software withSwans; and Arthur Markman'sKnowledge Representation withReptiles.[m] The "World of Escher" marketsposters,neckties,T-shirts, andjigsaw puzzles of Escher's artworks.[80] Both Austria and the Netherlands have issuedpostage stamps commemorating the artist and his works.[11]
See also
Escher sentences, named after works likeAscending and Descending
^"We named him Maurits Cornelis after S.'s [Sara's] beloved uncle Van Hall, and called him 'Mauk' for short ...", Diary of Escher's father, quoted inM. C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work, Abradale Press, 1981, p. 9.
^The circled cross at the top of the image may indicate that the drawing is inverted, as can be seen by comparison with the photograph; the neighbouring image has a circled cross at the bottom. It is likely that Escher turned the drawing block, as convenient, while holding it in his hand in the Alhambra.
^Escher made it clear that he did not understand the abstract concept of agroup, but he did grasp the nature of the 17 wallpaper groups in practice.[9]
^Schattschneider notes that Coxeter observed in March 1964 that the white arcs inCircle Limit III "were not, as he and others had assumed, badly rendered hyperbolic lines but rather were branches of equidistant curves."[36]
^In 1969, Escher's business advisor, Jan W. Vermeulen, author of a biography on the artist, established the M.C. Escher Foundation, and transferred into this entity virtually all of Escher's unique work as well as hundreds of his original prints. These works were lent by the Foundation to the Hague Museum. Upon Escher's death, his three sons dissolved the Foundation, and they became partners in the ownership of the art works. In 1980, this holding was sold to an American art dealer and the Hague Museum. The Museum obtained all of the documentation and the smaller portion of the art works. The copyrights remained the possession of Escher's three sons – who later sold them to Cordon Art, a Dutch company. Control was subsequently transferred to The M.C. Escher Company B.V. of Baarn, Netherlands, which licenses use of the copyrights on all of Escher's art and on his spoken and written text. A related entity, the M.C. Escher Foundation of Baarn, promotes Escher's work by organizing exhibitions, publishing books and producing films about his life and work.[57][58]
^Steven Poole comments "The artist [Escher] who created some of the most memorable images of the 20th century was never fully embraced by the art world."[44]
^These and further albums are listed by Coulthart.[78]
^These and further books are listed by Bailey.[79]
^abBryden, Barbara E. (2005).Sundial: Theoretical Relationships Between Psychological Type, Talent, And Disease. Gainesville, Fla: Center for Applications of Psychological Type.ISBN978-0-935652-46-8.
^abcdefgO'Connor, J. J.; Robertson, E. F. (May 2000)."Maurits Cornelius Escher".Biographies. University of St Andrews. Archived fromthe original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved2 November 2015. which citesStrauss, S. (9 May 1996). "M C Escher".The Globe and Mail.
^Ernst, Bruno, The Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher,Taschen, 1978; p. 15
^abc"M.C. Escher — Life and Work".The Collection, National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Archived fromthe original on 10 November 2015. Retrieved1 November 2015.Escher and the interior of his studio in Rome are reflected in the mirrored sphere that he holds in his hand. Escher's preoccupation with mirrored reflections and visual illusion belongs to a tradition of northern European art established in the fifteenth century. [Slide 11]
^Cipra, Barry A. (1998). Paul Zorn (ed.).What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences, Volume 4. American Mathematical Society. p. 103.ISBN978-0-8218-0766-8.
^ab"Möbius Strip II, February 1963".Collections. National Gallery of Canada. Archived fromthe original on 19 July 2015. Retrieved2 November 2015. which citesEscher, M. C. (2001).M. C. Escher, the Graphic Work. Taschen.
^Coxeter, H. S. M. (June 1957). "Crystal symmetry and its generalizations".A Symposium on Symmetry, Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada.51 (3, section 3):1–13.
![Forerunner of Escher's curved perspectives, geometries, and reflections: Parmigianino's Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror, 1524[22]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aParmigianino_Selfportrait.jpg)
![Forerunner of Escher's impossible perspectives: William Hogarth's Satire on False Perspective, 1753[22]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWilliam_Hogarth_-_Absurd_perspectives.png)
![Forerunner of Escher's fantastic endless stairs: Piranesi's Carceri Plate VII – The Drawbridge, 1745, reworked 1761[22]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGiovanni_Battista_Piranesi_-_The_Drawbridge_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
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