Maurits C. Escher
1898-1972
The Dutch artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, usually referred to as M. C. Escher, was born in Leeuwarden, Holland. He was a Dutch graphic artist known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints which feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tessellations.
He was the youngest son of civil engineer George Arnold Escher and his second wife, Sara Gleichman. In 1903, the family moved to Arnhem where he took carpentry and piano lessons until he was thirteen years old.
From 1903 until 1918 he attended primary and secondary school. Though he excelled at drawing, his grades were generally poor, and he was required to repeat the course twice. Aspiring to be an architect, Escher enrolled in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem. While studying there from 1919 to 1922, his emphasis shifted from architecture to drawing and printmaking. He studied decorative arts under Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, with whom he would remain friends for years. In 1922 Escher left the school, having gained experience in drawing and making woodcuts.
In 1924 Escher married Jetta Umiker, and the couple settled in Rome. They resided in Italy until 1935, when growing political turmoil forced them to move first to Switzerland, then to Belgium.
In 1941, with World War II under way and German troops occupying Brussels, Escher returned to Holland and settled in Baarn, where he lived and worked until shortly before his death.
While living in Italy from 1922 to 1935, he spent the spring and summer months traveling throughout the country to make drawings. Later, in his studio in Rome, Escher developed these into prints. Escher often created enigmatic spatial effects by combining various vantage points, for instance, looking up and down at the same time.
After Escher left Italy in 1935, his interest shifted from landscape to something he described as "mental imagery," often based on theoretical premises. After 1935, Escher also increasingly explored complex architectural mazes involving perspectival games and the representation of impossible spaces.
Escher died at the retirement home for artists on March 27, 1972, at 73 years of age.
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