Escher's paintings. Posters, reproductions of paintings by famous artists in high resolution good quality, clipart and large photos for download

It often seems to people that graphic art is a spectacle, frankly, boring. Especially if they don't understand it at all. But as soon as they look at the works of this, I'm not afraid to say, world master, their opinion instantly changes. And this is because his paintings amaze the imagination and change consciousness.

"Impossible - possible" - just two words, but they are the best way to describe the immense creativity Maurits Cornelis Escher (Maurits Cornelis Escher, 1898-1972).

The now world-famous Dutch artist was born into an extraordinary family. His father was an engineer, and his mother was the daughter of a minister. Mauk, as his relatives affectionately called him, was the fifth and youngest child. The Eschers had the great honor of living in the Princesshof Palace. Translated from German, this is the Court of the Princess. It once belonged to Maria Louise of Hesse-Kassel, mother of William VI, Prince of Orange.

Like all children, Mauk did not want to study at all, so his grades, to put it mildly, left much to be desired. Education in carpentry and the basics of music did not give any results. And, oddly enough, only drawing aroused genuine interest in the boy. The teacher, who was the first to notice the pupil's desire to learn the world of art, showed him some elements of woodcuts (wood engraving). From this began the difficult, but fantastic, path of Maurits Escher's creativity. Printing technologies, and in particular lithography, became the meaning of the young master's life. Then, in 1916, the first work of the artist was born - a portrait of George Arnold Escher, beloved and revered by his father's son. Remarkably, the engraving was done on an unusual "canvas" - purple linoleum.

The young man did not receive a certificate of maturity. However, he really wanted to have an art education, so over the next few years, Maurits Escher actively took lessons at the Delft Technical School, as well as from the great modernist, Dutch artist Samuel de Mesquita (Samuel de Mesquita). His Escher will consider his second father in the world of graphics until the end of his life. Having gained skills and experience from the virtuosos of his craft, he still enters the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts, from where he graduates as a certified specialist.

Travel was an integral part of the artist's life. Nomadic life gave the artist the opportunity to absorb the national flavor of many countries and study the specifics of their architecture and fine arts. New knowledge gained in wandering around the world helped to fill and diversify the creative universe of Maurits Escher.

He never thought of becoming famous as an oil painter. Maurits Escher often painted Italian landscapes, the natural beauties of France, Dutch architecture (a series of views of Delft). Some of them already initially had the author's stylistic features associated with the play of space, but the real pleasure was given to him only by a full-fledged work with printed prints. From an early age, the eminent engraver was interested in repeating images, which could only be done with the help of printing technology.

Mathematics played a decisive role in the work of Maurits Escher. Many of his works are built on regular and irregular repetition of geometric figures on the plane, which resembles the principle of a three-dimensional mosaic. The most important for him are polyhedrons. They are present in many works of the master. But perhaps the most popular work related to polygonal figures is "Gravity" (Gravity), which is made by lithographic printing.

In the center of the picture is a dodecahedron, consisting of many pyramids. All of them serve as a home for non-existent, as if mythical monsters that stick their big paws and long necks into the holes. A huge figure, like a web, is framed on all sides by an endless series of limbs of these fantastic creatures.

In addition to polygons, Maurits Escher quite often depicted spheres on his canvases, which he turned into self-portrait works. An important part of the creations were spiral figures, as well as Möbius strips.

The heyday of the artist's work, albeit rather late, was 1939, because it was then that Escher's most outstanding creation, Metamorphosis, was born. The painting, seven meters long, is an example of the unsurpassed mastery of optical illusion. There is a repeated, but at the same time smooth transition from one ornament to another, where birds miraculously turn into fish, and the city landscape gradually begins to look like a chessboard with figures.

So what is unusual about Maurits Escher's work? The fact that he shows a completely different, his own, unusual form of vision for an ordinary person. Every now and then, “fantastic creatures” appear on his canvases, faceless people who live on stairs that have no end and no beginning, hands that draw themselves.

The logic of space and time is constantly being violated, undergoing changes, and the main objects of the plot are reincarnated into something inexplicable. Optical illusions create a universe that is not subject to earthly laws. It would seem that the surreal, sometimes even paradoxical, world of the artist resembles a modern horror film created using 3D technologies. But it is these unreal aspects that hide the answers to many questions of human existence.

The artist's paintings go beyond reality, but at the same time they contain what actually lies on the surface. The strangeness of what is happening in his works makes us look more closely into the depths of his creations and at some point realize that Escher, the founder of impossibilism or imp-art - the art of the impossible, is truly great.

Any fantasy is congenial to the human mind, but not absurdity dictated from outside. Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, who was born on June 17, 1898 and died in 1972, painted surreal, unthinkable things. It can not be. But that is how he saw the world. This is the truth of a real person...

Maurits Cornelis Escher.

(17.06.1898 - 27.03.1972)

Dutch graphic artist

Maurits Cornelis Escher — Maurits Cornelis Escher(1898-1972) - Dutch graphic artist. Born June 17, 1898 in Leeuwarden (Holland) in the family of a hydraulic engineer. In 1919 he entered the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem, but soon left architecture to study graphics. Until 1937 he traveled extensively in Europe, making sketches, paying special attention to the deceptive, ambiguous elements of the landscape.

Ascending and descending - Up and down

1960 - lithograph 38x28.5 cm. and R. Penrose, published in the British Journal of Psychology in February 1958. The rectangle of the courtyard is closed by the walls of the building, which has an endless staircase instead of a roof. Most likely, monks, adherents of a certain religious sect, live in this house. Perhaps a daily ritual requires them to climb the steps for several hours at a time. It seems that if they get tired, they are allowed to turn around and go down instead. to rise. However, both directions, although expressive, are equally useless. The two recalcitrant individuals at this point refuse to participate in the ritual. They do not need this at all, but there is no doubt that sooner or later they will be forced to repent of their nonconformity.

Works Escher involve the viewer in the opposition of illusion and reality. For example, in engraving reptiles the flat image of lizards miraculously fills with volume, they seem to crawl out of the picture. Works such as reptiles and Another world, where the walls, ceiling and floor change their spatial roles with each turn of the sheet, reflect the passion of the artist "magic mechanics" metamorphosis of the graphic image.

Puddle - Puddle

1952. Longitudinal engraving. 24x32 cm The cloudless evening sky is reflected in a puddle left on a forest path after a recent downpour. Traces of two car tires, two bicycle wheels and the shoes of two pedestrians were imprinted on the clay earth.

Creation Escher representatives of the natural sciences, mathematicians, and psychologists were the first to appreciate them. It is believed that it should be considered in the context of the theory of relativity Einstein, Freudian psychoanalysis, cubism and similar discoveries in the field of space, time relations and their identity, although Escher and did not belong to the main stream of avant-garde art of the 20th century.

Tower of Babel

Tower of Babel.1928. Longitudinal engraving. 62 x 38.5 cm Since the period of mixing of languages ​​supposedly coincided with the emergence of different races, some builders are white, others are black. The work has stopped: they no longer understand each other. The drama culminates at the very top of the tower under construction - we see it from above, as if from a bird's eye view, which requires maximum, perspective reduction. This problem was thought through by the author to the end only twenty years later.

Belvedere

Belvedere. 1958. lithograph. 46x29.5 cm To the left in the foreground is a sheet of paper with a drawing of a cube. The intersections of the faces are marked with two circles. Which line is ahead, which is behind? In a 3D world, it is impossible to see the front and back sides at the same time, so they cannot be depicted. However, it is possible to draw an object. Transmitting a different reality, if you look at it from above and below. A young man sitting on a bench holds in his hands just such an absurd likeness of a cube. He gazes thoughtfully at this incomprehensible object, remaining indifferent to the fact that the belvedere behind him is built in the same incredible, absurd style. On the floor of the lower platform, that is, inside, there is a ladder on which two people climb. However, having reached the upper platform, they will again find themselves outside, under the open sky, and again they will have to go inside the belvedere. Is it surprising that none of those present cares about the prisoner, who sticks his head between the bars of the prison bars and mourns his fate?

Balkony - Balcony

1945. Lithography. 30x23.5 cm The three-dimensionality of these houses is an absolute function. It is impossible to break the two-dimensional nature of the sheet of paper on which they are depicted (unless you click on it from the back). However, in the center there is a certain swelling, a kind of prominence, which is also nothing more than an illusion: the sheet remains flat. Only stretching was achieved, a fourfold increase in the central part of the composition.

Double planetoid

Double asteroid.1949. End engraving (four boards). Diameter 37.5 cm Two regular tetrahedra penetrating each other float in space like an asteroid. The dark tetrahedron is inhabited by people who have transformed it into a city with houses, bridges and roads. The light tetrahedron remained in its natural state, with rocks overgrown with vegetation and prehistoric animals. So, two celestial bodies form a single whole, but they have no idea about each other.

Moebius band II - Moebius band 2

1963. Longitudinal engraving (three boards). 45x20 cm A closed ring-shaped strip at first glance has two surfaces - external and internal. You see how nine red ants crawl one after another on one and on the other. However, this is a strip with a one-sided surface.

Tetrahedal Planetoid - Quadrangular planet

Tetrahedral asteroid. 1954. Longitudinal engraving (2 boards). 43x43 cm. This small planet, inhabited by people, has the shape of a regular tetrahedron and is surrounded by a spherical atmosphere. 2 out of 4 faces of the tetrahedron are visible; an edge divides the image in two. All vertical lines: walls of houses, trees and people are directed towards the center of gravity, and all horizontal surfaces: gardens, streets, roofs, water of ponds and canals - form part of a spherical shell.

The limit is circle 4 (heaven and hell).

1960. Longitudinal engraving (two boards). Diameter 41.5 cm. And here the size of the components decreases as the centrifugal movement towards the edges of the circle. The 6 largest forms (3 white angels and 3 black devils) radiate from the center. The disc is divided into 6 sections dominated by angels on a black background and devils on a white one. Thus, heaven and hell change places 6 times. In the intermediate, "earthly" stages, they are similar to each other.

Drawing Hands - Drawing hands

1948. Lithography. 28.5x34 cm A sheet of paper is attached to the board with buttons. The right hand makes a sketch of a cuff with a cufflink on a sheet. The work is not finished yet. But on the right, the left arm has already been drawn in detail: it protrudes from the sleeve so realistically, as if it grows out of a flat surface, and, in turn, sketches another cuff, from which, like a living creature, the right arm crawls out.

1961 Lithograph Following the eyes of all its elements in turn, we did not notice the slightest discrepancy between them. However, before us is a completely impossible whole, since unexpected changes occur in the interpretation of the distance between the object and the observer. This unthinkable construction is “built into” the picture three times. The falling water drives a mill wheel and flows down an inclined zigzag chute between the two towers, returning to the point where the waterfall begins again. It is enough for the miller to throw a bucket of water into it from time to time to compensate for the evaporation. It seems that both towers are of the same height; however, the one on the right turns out to be a floor lower than the tower on the left

Waterfall (in detail). 1961 - lithograph

Dragon - Dragon

Dragon. 1952. End engraving. 32x24 cm No matter how this dragon strives to pass into another dimension, it remains absolutely flat. Cut in two places a sheet of paper where it is imprinted. Then bend the sheet so that you get two square holes. But the dragon is a stubborn monster: despite its two-dimensionality, it tries with all its might to prove that it exists in three dimensions; therefore, he puts his head into one quadrangular hole, and his tail into another.

Eye - Eye

1946. Mezzotint. 15x20 cm. The artist draws his eye, greatly enlarged with the help of a concave shaving mirror. The pupil reflects the skull, always reminding us: memento mori.

Whirlpools - Whirlpools

whirlpools. 1957. End engraving. 45x23.5 cm The foci are connected to each other by two white S-shaped spirals, passing along the axes of the bodies of the fish, which swim close to each other. Odnoka in this case, they move forward in opposite directions. The top focus is the starting point for the dark rows, whose components are maximized in the middle of the drawing; then, carried away by the whirlpool, they fall into the sphere of influence of the lower focus until they disappear into it. The light rows function, but in the opposite direction. Taking into account the technological features of woodcuts, I want to note that one engraving board is used for both tones: the prints are fixed alternately on one sheet of paper: when rotated 180 degrees, they create reflections of each other. One print densely fills the free areas of the other, and vice versa.

Circle Limit III

1959. Longitudinal engraving (two boards). Diameter 41.5 cm Curved white lines, intersecting, divide each other into sections; each is equal to the length of the fish - from the infinitesimal to the largest, and again - from the largest to the infinitesimal. Each row is monochrome. At least four colors must be used to achieve the tonal contrasts of these series. From a technological point of view, five boards are required: one for black elements and four for color ones. To fill the circle, each board in the shape of a rectangular circle should be pulled four times. thus a finished print would require 4x5=20 prints.

Destination

Description:
1951 - lithograph 29X42 cm.

snakes. 1969

Relativity. 1953

Marius Cornelis Escher (1898 - 1972) one of the most famous graphic artists in the world. His work is loved by millions of people around the world, as we can see on many sites on the internet.

Escher is best known for his so-called incredible structures such as "Up and Down", "Relativity", his "transformations" such as "Metamorphoses". I", "Metamorphosis II", "Metamorphosis III ”, “Sky and Water” or “Reptiles”.

However, Escher created some wonderful, more realistic works during his stay and travels in Italy.

For example, Castrovalva ", where you can see Escher admiring the beauties of heights and lowlands near and far, or lithography" Atrani » a small town located on the Amalfi Coast, established in 1931.

During his lifetime, Escher produced 448 lithographs, prints and woodcuts and over 2,000 drawings and sketches. Like some of his famous predecessors - Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Durer and Holben - Escher was left-handed.

As a graphic artist, Escher made illustrations for books, postage stamps and murals,

Designed tapestries.

Escher was born in Luwander, in the Netherlands, the fourth youngest son of an engineer. After Escher was 5 years old, his family moved to Arnhem, where Escher spent most of his youth. After failing his high school exams, Maurice was eventually sent to the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem.

After Maurice spent a week at school, and showed his drawings and linocuts to his teacher Samuel Jesserne, who inspired him to continue working in the decorative genre, he announced to his father that he was better off studying decorative arts than architecture,

After leaving school, Escher traveled to Italy where he met his future wife, Jetta Wimker (whom he married in 1924). They settled in Rome, where they lived until 1935. During these 11 years, Escher traveled to Italy each year, making drawings and sketches for various prints he produced back home.

Many of these sketches he later used for lithographs and woodcuts, for example the background in the lithograph "Waterfall" is taken from works of the Italian period, or the trees depicted in the woodcut called "Puddle", these are the same trees that Escher used in wood engraving" Pineta of Calvi ", which was made in 1932.

Escher was fascinated by the regular air force at the Alhambara, and the 14th century castles at Granada, on a visit to Spain in 1922.

While living in Switzerland and during the Second World War, Escher pursued his hobby resolutely, painting 62 of the 137 works in the series " Regular Division Drawings which he will create during his life.

Expanding on his passion for the regular air force, using some drawings as the basis for his other hobby, beech wood carving.

Escher played with architecture, perspective and space. His work continues to impress and amaze millions of people around the world. In his works we notice his observations of the world that surrounds us and the expression of his fantasy. Escher shows us that reality is beautiful, comprehensible and charming.

Early work (1916-1922)

Escher's father linocut 1916
Bookplate for Bastian Kiest linocut 1916
Chrysanthemum linocut 1916
Child's head linocut 1916
Skull linocut 1917
Railway bridge, Oosterbeek engraving 1917
Talisman engraving 1917
Male portrait linocut 1917
Self portrait linocut 1917
Child linocut 1917
Young Thrush linocut 1917
Bookplate for Maurits Escher linocut 1917
Self portrait linocut 1917
Jug linocut 1917
Blotters linocut 1918
Fit van Stolk linocut 1918
Waves linocut 1918
Self portrait linocut 1918

The borger oak linocut 1919
Portrait linocut 1919
Man Seated with a Cat on His Lap Longitudinal Woodcut 1919
Tree longitudinal woodcut 1919
Self-portrait longitudinal woodcut 1919
Parrot linocut 1919
White cat longitudinal woodcut 1919
Sea shell longitudinal woodcut 1919 or 1920
Self-portrait on a chair longitudinal woodcut 1920
Rabbits longitudinal woodcut 1920
Nude woman (landscape) longitudinal woodcut 1920
Wild West longitudinal woodcut 1920
The Fall longitudinal woodcut 1920
Escher's father through a magnifying glass longitudinal woodcut 1920
Portrait of a Man Longitudinal Woodcut 1920
Standing Man Longitudinal Woodcut 1920
Seated old woman longitudinal woodcut 1920
Flower engraving 1920
Seated Nude Woman I Longitudinal Woodcut 1920 or 1921
Seated Nude Woman II Longitudinal Woodcut 1920 or 1921
Seated Nude Woman III Longitudinal Woodcut 1920 or 1921
Rochier Ingen Hus lithograph 1920 or 1921
Poster lithograph 1920 or 1921
Filling the plane with human figures lithograph 1920 or 1921
Paradise longitudinal woodcut 1920
Seated Nude Woman IV Longitudinal Woodcut 1921
Seated nude woman V linocut 1921
Hand with fir cone lengthwise woodcut 1921
Forest near Menton longitudinal woodcut 1921
Saint Francis longitudinal woodcut 1922
Eight heads: base longitudinal woodcut 1922
Eight heads longitudinal woodcut 1922
Eagle (vignette) longitudinal woodcut 1922

Italian period (1922-1935)

Roofs of Siena longitudinal woodcut 1922
San Gimignano longitudinal woodcut 1923
Dolphins longitudinal woodcut 1923
Self-portrait longitudinal woodcut 1922
Portrait of Jetta ("Woman with a Flower") longitudinal woodcut 1925
Vitorchiano nel Cimino longitudinal woodcut 1925
First Day of the Creation of the World longitudinal woodcut 1925
The Sixth Day of the Creation of the World longitudinal woodcut 1926
The Fall longitudinal woodcut 1927
Procession in the Crypt longitudinal woodcut 1927
Rome longitudinal woodcut 1927
Castle in the air longitudinal woodcut 1928
Tower of Babel lithograph 1928
Farah San Martino, Abruzzi longitudinal woodcut 1928
Bonifacio, Corsica longitudinal woodcut 1928
Corte, Corsica longitudinal woodcut 1929
City in Southern Italy longitudinal woodcut 1929
Flooded Cathedral longitudinal woodcut 1929
Child Arthur Escher longitudinal woodcut 1929
Self portrait lithograph 1929
Barbarano, Cimino lithograph 1929
Street in Scanno, Abruzzi longitudinal woodcut 1930
Castrovalva lithograph 1930
Bridge lithograph 1930
Morano, Calabria longitudinal woodcut 1930
Fiumara, Calabria lithograph 1930
Tropea, Calabria lithograph 1931
Monastery next to Rocca Imperiale, Calabria lithograph 1931
Atrani, Amalfi Coast lithograph 1931
Covered alley in Atrani cross woodcut 1931
Ravello and the Amalfi Coast lithograph 1931
Amalfi Coast longitudinal woodcut 1931
Farm, Ravello lithograph 1931
San Cosimo, Ravello lithograph 1932
Turello, Southern Italy lithograph 1932
Porta Maria del Ospedale, Ravello cross woodcut 1932
Lion on the Fountain of the Piazza in Ravello cross woodcut 1932
San Michele dei Frisone, Rome lithograph 1932
Mummified priests in Ganji, Sicily lithograph 1932
Segeste Castle, Sicily crosscut woodcut 1932
Cave city near Sperlinga, in Sicily longitudinal woodcut 1933
Palm tree transverse woodcut 1933
Caltavuturo in the mountains of Madoni, Sicily lithograph 1933
Monastery in Montreal, Sicily longitudinal woodcut 1933
Lava flow from Etna in 1928, Sicily lithograph 1933
Pineta Calvi, Corsica longitudinal woodcut 1933
Fluorescent sea lithograph 1933
Fireworks lithograph 1933
Old olive tree, Corsica crosscut woodcut 1934
Nonza, Corsica lithograph 1934
Still life with glass lithograph 1934
Rome at night: St. Peter's Colonnade longitudinal woodcut 1934
Rome at night: Santa Maria del Popolo longitudinal woodcut 1934
Rome at Night: Trajan's Column Longitudinal Woodcut 1934
Night Rome: Basilica of Constantine longitudinal woodcut 1934
Rome by Night: Castle of St. Angelo longitudinal woodcut 1934
Night Rome: Colosseum longitudinal woodcut 1934
Airplane over a snowy landscape longitudinal woodcut 1934
Still life with a reflecting ball lithograph 1934
Portrait of the engineer G. A. Escher, the artist's father, at the age of 92 lithograph 1935
Hand with reflecting ball lithograph 1935
St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome longitudinal woodcut 1935
Senguela, Malta longitudinal woodcut 1935
Hell (copy of a painting by Hieronymus Bosch) lithograph 1935
Dream longitudinal woodcut 1935

Switzerland and Belgium (1935-1941)

Snow lithograph 1936
Thorny Flower Crosscut Woodcut 1936
House in Lava near Nunziata, Sicily lithograph 1936
Venice engraving 1936
Still Life and Street Longitudinal Woodcut 1937
Metamorphosis I longitudinal woodcut 1937
Development of longitudinal woodcut 1937
Day and night longitudinal woodcut 1938
Sky and water I longitudinal woodcut 1938
Sky and water II lithograph 1938
Cycle lithograph 1938
Entrance to the Old Church, Delft longitudinal woodcut 1939
Delft from the tower of the Old Church longitudinal woodcut 1939
Development II longitudinal woodcut 1939
Ostpoort, Delft longitudinal woodcut 1939
New Church, Delft longitudinal woodcut 1939
City Hall, Delft longitudinal woodcut 1939
Canal Foldersgracht, Delft longitudinal woodcut 1939
Metamorphosis II longitudinal woodcut 1939-1940
Ex-libris for Dr. P. Travagliino cross-cut woodcut 1940

Return to the Netherlands (1941-1954)

Fish longitudinal woodcut 1941
Filling the plane with reptiles longitudinal woodcut 1941
Verbum lithograph 1942
Reptiles lithograph 1943
Ant lithograph 1943
Dandelion I crosscut woodcut 1943
Dandelion II cross woodcut 1943
Meeting lithograph 1944
Balcony lithograph 1945
Doric columns cross woodcut 1945
Three spheres I transverse woodcut 1945
Diploma of the Provisional Academy in Eindhoven longitudinal woodcut 1945
Riders longitudinal woodcut 1946
Mezzotint eye 1946
Magic mirror lithograph 1946
Three spheres II lithograph 1946
Mummified mezzotint frog 1946
New Year greeting card longitudinal woodcut 1947
1st floor of the mezzotint gallery 1946-1949
Above and below lithograph 1947
Underworld II longitudinal and transverse woodcut 1947
Dewdrop mezzotint 1948
Study for the Stars longitudinal woodcut 1948
Stars transverse woodcut 1948
Dewdrop mezzotint 1948
Sun and moon engraving 1948
Drawing hands lithograph 1948
New Year greeting card engraving 1949
Filling space with birds crosscut woodcut 1949
Mosaic Pattern: Birds Crosscut Woodcut 1949
Sea shells mezzotint 1949
Fish and frogs crosscut woodcut 1949
Double asteroid crosscut woodcut 1949
Butterflies longitudinal woodcut 1950
Rippled surface lithograph 1950
Order and Chaos lithograph 1950
Devils (vignette) transverse woodcut 1950
House with stairs lithograph 1951
House with stairs II lithograph 1951
Mosaic I mezzotint 1951
Curl up! lithograph 1951
Fate lithograph 1951
Tiling of the plane with fish and birds lithograph 1951
Gravity lithograph 1952
Two intersecting planes longitudinal woodcut 1952
Dragon engraving 1952
Puddle longitudinal woodcut 1952
Division of space by cubes lithograph 1952
Concentric spheres transverse woodcut 1953
Relativity lithograph 1953
Spirals transverse woodcut 1953
Three intersecting planes longitudinal woodcut 1954
Bookplate for A. R. A. Wertheim longitudinal woodcut 1954
Tetrahedral asteroid longitudinal woodcut 1954

Success and fame (1955-1972)

Convexity and Concavity lithograph 1955
Depth engraving 1955
Liberation lithograph 1955
Spiral longitudinal-transverse woodcut 1955
Three worlds lithograph 1955
Infinite Unity lithograph 1956
Exhibition of engravings lithography 1956
Swans engraving 1956
Division longitudinal woodcut 1956
Less and less lengthwise woodcut 1956
Whirlpools longitudinal-transverse woodcut 1957
Cube with magic ribbons lithograph 1957
Mosaic II lithograph 1957
Belvedere lithograph 1958
Road of Life II engraving 1958
Limit - circle I engraving 1958
Spherical surface with fish longitudinal woodcut 1958
Spherical spirals longitudinal woodcut 1958
Flatworms lithograph 1959
Limit - circle II longitudinal woodcut 1959
Limit - circle III longitudinal woodcut 1959
Fish and scales engraving 1959
Limit - Circle IV (Heaven and Hell) longitudinal woodcut 1960
Descending and ascending lithograph 1960
Waterfall lithograph 1961
Möbius strip I longitudinal-transverse woodcut 1961
Möbius ribbon II (Red Ants) longitudinal woodcut 1963
Limit-square engraving 1964
Knots longitudinal woodcut 1965
Road of Life III longitudinal woodcut 1966
Metamorphosis III longitudinal woodcut 1967-1968
Snakes longitudinal woodcut 1969

Books illustrated by Escher

* A. P. van Stolk. Flor de Pascua. — Baarn, 1921.
* E. E. Drijfhout. XXIV Emblemata dat zijn zinne-beelden. — Bussum, 1932.
* J. Walch. De vreeselijke avonturen van Scholastica. — Bussum, 1933.

Books written by Escher

*M. C. Escher. Regelmatige vlakverdeling. — Utrecht, 1958.
*M. C. Escher. Grafiek en tekeningen. — Zwolle, 1959.
*M. C. Escher. The graphic work of M. C. Escher. — New York, 1961.
* R. Escher, M. C. Escher. Bewegingen en metamorfosen. Een briefwisselling. — Amsterdam, 1985.

Heritage

Escher Museum in The Hague

In 1968, 4 years before his death, Escher created The M. C. Escher Foundation in order to "preserve his legacy." The M.C. Escher Foundation continues to organize exhibitions of the artist's work, publish books and films about him and his work. However, the foundation did not inherit his copyrights.

The copyright holder is The M.C. Escher Company B.V. This foundation manages all copyright in Escher's work, including all images and text, both oral and written. Despite being based in the Netherlands, The M.C. Escher Company B.V. is very active in dealing with copyright infringement in the United States. In particular, the fund recently won a case against the American trading firm Rock Walker.

In 2002, in The Hague, in the former royal palace, formerly used as an exhibition hall (Dutch. Het Paleis), the Escher Museum was opened, which exhibits his most famous graphic works.

On the wall of the boarding house in Ravello, where Escher stayed and where, in particular, he met his future wife, there is a memorial plaque.

Interesting Facts

* An asteroid discovered in 1985 is named after Escher.
* The image of the painting "Relativity" is regularly used in other works of art: it is present in one of the rooms of the Goblin City in the film "Labyrinth", the characters of the animated series "Futurama" in the series "I, Roommate" during the search for an apartment one of the heroes visit including "Esher" house, the image is present in the Red Hot Chili Peppers video for the song Otherside.
* In "Weird Al" Yankovic's song White and Nerdy, which parodies the image of a nerd, there is the line "MC Escher that's my favorite MC".

Maurits Cornelis Escher(Dutch. Maurits Cornelis Escher ([ˈmʌu̯rɪts kɔrˈneːlɪs ˈɛʃər̥]); June 17, 1898, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands - March 27, 1972, Hilversum, the Netherlands) is a Dutch graphic artist. Known primarily for his conceptual lithographs, engravings on wood and metal, in which he masterfully explored the plastic aspects of the concepts of infinity and symmetry, as well as the features of the psychological perception of complex three-dimensional objects, the most striking representative of imp art.

Netherlands (1898-1922)

Maurits Escher (Dutch diminutive Mauk - "Mauk") was born on June 17, 1898 in the city of Leeuwarden, the administrative center of the Dutch province of Friesland, in the family of an engineer. His parents were George Arnold Escher ( George Arnold Escher) and Sarah Adriana Gleichman-Escher ( Sarah Adriana Gleichman-Escher, George's second wife, daughter of a minister), Maurits was their youngest son (he had four older brothers, Berend and Edmond from his father's first marriage, Arnold and Jan from his second). The family lived in the Princesssehof palace, which belonged to Maria Louise of Hesse-Kassel in the 18th century, mother and regent of Stadtholder Wilhelm IV. Now in this palace there is a museum of ceramics, in the courtyard of which there is a stele with tiles made by Escher.

In 1903, the family moved to Arnhem, where from 1907 the boy studied carpentry and music for some time, at the age of seven he spent a year in a children's hospital in the seaside town of Zandvoort to improve his poor health. From 1912 to 1918 Maurits attended high school. Although he showed a talent for drawing from an early age, his progress in school was mediocre (among other things, he failed the exam in drawing). In 1916, Escher made his first linocut, a portrait of his father J. A. Escher.

In 1917, the Escher family moved to Oosterbeek (a suburb of Arnhem). At that time, Escher and his friends were fond of literature for several years, Maurits wrote poetry and essays. He was unable to pass four final exams and because of this he was unable to receive his Abitur. Despite the lack of a certificate, due to an error in Dutch law, he was able to obtain a deferment from military service to continue his studies and in 1918 began to take architecture lessons at the Delft Technical School. Due to poor health, Escher could not cope with his studies and was expelled, but in 1919 he nevertheless entered the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem, from which he graduated in 1922. There, his teacher was the artist Samuel de Mesquita, who had a great influence on the young man. Escher maintained friendly relations with Mesquita until 1944, when Mesquita, a Jew by origin, was arrested on February 1 with his family and sent by the Nazis to Auschwitz. Almost immediately after their arrival (presumably on February 11), Mesquita and his wife were put to death in the gas chamber. After the death of his teacher, Escher helped send his work to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, leaving only one sketch with a trace of a German boot, and in 1946 he organized a memorial exhibition in the mentioned museum.

Escher quite consciously chose a career as an engraver, and not as a painter (in oil). According to Hans Locher, a researcher of his work, Escher was attracted by the possibility of obtaining multiple prints, which was provided by graphic techniques, since he was already interested in the possibility of repeating images at an early age.

In 1921, Escher and his family visited northern Italy and the French Riviera. He traveled abroad for the first time and had the opportunity to get acquainted with the art of the Italian Renaissance, which made a strong impression on him. He paints olive trees, starts experimenting with spheres and mirrors. His engravings illustrate a humorous booklet by his friend, Ad van Stolk. Flor de Pascua("Easter Flower"), released in October in the Netherlands. The first large-circulation printed work was Saint Francis (sermon to the birds). Already in this book, motifs characteristic of Escher's later work begin to appear, such as, for example, the distortion of space in his self-portrait in a spherical mirror.

Italy (1922-1935)

In April 1922, Escher and two friends left for Italy, where they were joined by the sister of one of their friends. According to legend, the mother saw off her son with the words "My son, do not smoke too much" (Escher was a heavy smoker all his life). Two of his friends are returning from Florence to the Netherlands in a couple of weeks, as they have run out of funds, and then Escher goes to San Gimignano. He paints Volterra and Siena, sees the fluorescent sea for the first time, spends the whole spring of 1922 outside the city, painting landscapes, plants and insects. After also visiting Assisi, Ravenna, Venice, Padua and Milan, in June Escher returns to Osterbeek with the intention of permanently moving to Italy. In September 1922, he sails on a steamer to Spain, where he visits Barcelona and Madrid, attends a bullfight, and then goes to Granada and studies the Moorish style at the Alhambra. Returning to Italy, he settled in Siena in November, where in August 1923 his first solo exhibition was held, where the artist managed to sell one work. Escher has been living in Rome since November 1923. Until 1935, he traveled every year in Italy for at least two months, visiting Sicily, Abruzzo, Campania, as well as Corsica, Malta and Tunisia. During this period, he created many landscapes, in the perspective of which the future geometric experiments of the artist are already guessed.

In March 1923, while traveling to Ravello, Escher first met Jetta (Julia) Umiker (German: Jetta Umiker), the daughter of a Swiss industrialist (until 1917, managing two textile factories in Nakhabino near Moscow). Maurits explained to her at the last moment, when the girl's family had already almost gone home to Switzerland; they were engaged, and on May 12, 1924 they got married in Viareggio, Italy. They travel to Oosterbeek for their honeymoon, stopping for long periods of time in Genoa, Annecy, Paris and Brussels, before returning to live in Italy and buying an unfinished house in Frascati, near Rome. From October 1925 they move to this house. On October 16, Escher's brother Arnold died in the mountains in South Tyrol; the artist was forced to visit the site to identify the body. It was after this that Escher created his "Days of Creation".

In Rome in July 1926, the couple has a son, George. The christening was attended by Victor Emmanuel III and Mussolini. The second son, Arthur, was born in 1928.

In the late 1920s, Escher gained significant popularity in the Netherlands, not least due to the efforts of his parents who had moved to The Hague by that time. So, in 1929, he was able to hold five exhibitions in Holland and Switzerland, which received favorable responses in the press, including in the most influential Dutch newspapers. It was during this period that Escher's paintings were first called mechanical and "logical". Since 1931, the artist has been increasingly turning to end woodcuts. In total, he created 448 lithographs and engravings and about 2 thousand drawings and sketches. Despite this, during the entire Italian period, Escher could not support his family on earnings from the sale of his works and lived on the financial assistance of his father.

At the end of 1930 and in 1931, Escher's health problems worsened, and the creation of new works slowed down. However, G. J. Hogewerf (Dutch. G. J. Hoogewerf), director of the Dutch Historical Museum in Rome, suggested that he write to magazines about several of his works and publish a book. Selected works were published in 1932 as part of a book Emblemata. In 1933, the engraving room of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, the leading museum in the Netherlands, acquired twenty-six of Escher's works.

Eschers live in Italy until July 4, 1935. Due to the deteriorating political climate in Fascist Italy and the health problems of their nine-year-old son, the family was forced to sell their house in Rome and leave Italy.

Switzerland and Belgium (1935-1941)

Immediately after moving to Chateau d'Eau (Switzerland), in the summer of 1935, Escher called on business in The Hague, to his parents, where he painted one of the most famous portraits of his father. Life in Switzerland was more expensive, and it took the Eschers some time to work hard. Jetta again began to study the piano, Escher joined the chess club. He tried to create landscapes, but was disappointed by the loss of the warmth that was obtained in Italian landscapes. In early 1936, he again decided to go to Southern Europe and invited a shipping company to make pictures of their ships and the harbors they enter in exchange for free passage. To his surprise, the Adria Company agreed; Jetta joined his trip in May, and by September 1, the couple had returned to Château d'Eau. This was the artist's last great journey through Mediterranean Italy. On a steamboat, they sailed along the coast of Italy and then to Spain, where Escher visited the Alhambra a second time. By the end of 1936, Escher created his first painting of impossible reality, Still Life with Street.

1937 is a transitional year in Escher's work, when he changed the genre of landscape to the creation of works embodying geometric designs.

In August 1937, the family, who could not get used to the atmosphere of rural Switzerland, moved to Uccle, a suburb of Brussels. Escher shows his crystallographer brother Beer (Berend) the picture he is working on, and he sees the possibilities of applying these ideas in crystallography. In 1938, Escher creates the basis for his famous lithograph Day and Night.

On June 14, 1939, George Arnold Escher, the artist's father, dies in The Hague at the age of 96. A few months later, Escher creates the famous Metamorphoses. May 27, 1940 Sarah Gleichmann Escher dies. At this time, Brussels was already occupied by Nazi Germany, and Escher was unable to attend his mother's funeral. In the second half of the year, he arranged her financial affairs, and also fulfilled the order of the Leiden city hall to decorate the building.

Netherlands (1941-1972)

In January 1941, the Eschers returned to the Netherlands. From February 20, 1941, the married couple lived in the city of Barn ( Baarn), in 1955 they moved to a new house in the same city. Escher survived the German occupation in the Netherlands. Even before the end of the war, he completed a sketch of a diploma for the Provisional Academy in Eindhoven, an educational institution that existed in the southeastern part of the country liberated from occupation. Immediately after the war, Escher participated in an exhibition of artists who refused to cooperate with the Nazi regime.

In 1946, Escher became interested in intaglio printing, but it took too much of his time, which is why until 1951 he made no more than seven prints in the mezzotint style, and no longer worked in the technique of intaglio engraving, preferring tonal contrasts rather than linear outline.

In 1949, Escher, with two other artists, arranges a large exhibition of his graphic works in Rotterdam; a number of works are sold, artists talk about their creation (in particular, Escher said that to create "Reptiles" he made a small figure from plasticine, which he moved around the table). After the publication of two articles, Escher became known in the United States, at the end of 1950 he was interviewed by the correspondent of the British magazine "Studio" Israel Schenker. The text of the interview was published in February 1951. In the same year, articles about Escher were published by Time (April 2) and Life (May 7) magazines. From that moment on, Escher, who was popular in Europe but little known in America, gains worldwide fame.

Rise of popularity

In the 1950s, Escher gained great popularity as a public lecturer, and in 1950, his first solo exhibition in the United States was held in Washington. After that, sales of his works in the United States sharply increase. Thus, in the mid-1950s, he sold 150 prints worth $2,125 through a Washington dealer. The artist travels a lot, from 1954 to 1961 he makes at least one trip a year by ship, usually to Italy. In 1954, a large exhibition of his work was held at the Stedelijk Museum at the same time as the World Congress of Mathematicians in Amsterdam. As a result, the time for creating works is significantly reduced - in 1954 Escher completed only two works.

April 27, 1955 Queen Wilhelmina makes Escher a knight (fifth degree, Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau (English)). In 1957, the artist was ordered to paint a fresco in Utrecht, and work on it continued for almost the entire 1958 year. In October 1958, George Asher graduated from the university and emigrated to Canada.

After studying a paper by geometer Donald Coxeter from Ottawa, who illustrated a system of patterns decreasing with distance from the center (hyperbolic tilings of the plane), Escher creates a number of works (the Coxeter effect is observed in at least six, in particular, "Limit - circle") with decreasing objects as they approach or move away from the center.

In 1959, the artist met with chemist and crystallographer Caroline McGillavry and, at her invitation, in August 1960, he delivered a lecture on symmetry at the international crystallographic conference in Cambridge. On August 29, he sails to Vancouver, in October he lectures in Ottawa and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At the same time, the artist receives an article published a year earlier by Lionel Penrose and Roger Penrose from the British Journal of Psychology and, under the influence of the “Penrose stairs” effect described in the article, creates the painting “Going down and going up”. Published in 1958 Regelmatige vlakverdeling("Correct division of planes"), in 1959 - Grafik en Tekeningen(“Graphic Works”), in which the artist himself commented on 76 works.

On July 29, 1961, the influential weekly magazine The Saturday Evening Post published a long article by Ernst Gombrich on Escher's work.

Last years

In 1962, the artist undergoes an emergency operation and stays in the hospital for a long time. In 1964, Escher again went to Canada to see his son and give a few lectures, but almost immediately ended up in Toronto for an operation and then returned to Europe. After that, his health deteriorates, and in the late 1960s he needs constant care.

In 1965, Escher received the Hilversumse Cultuurpreis Art Prize, and Caroline McGillavry published the book Symmetry Aspects of M. C. Escher’s Periodic Drawings. The October 1967 issue of the popular science magazine Scientific American published an article on Escher's work. In 1967, Queen Juliana promotes Escher to the rank of knight of the fourth degree (officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau). In 1968, a retrospective was organized in The Hague to celebrate Escher's 70th birthday; at the end of the same year, Jetta, who had never been satisfied with life in Holland, returned to Switzerland. Although the couple did not formally divorce, they never lived together again.

In July 1969, Escher creates his last woodcut, Snakes. In 1970, another operation and hospitalization took place, Escher moved to the Rosa Spier Huis nursing home for the elderly artists in the city of Laren, near Hilversum. At the World Exhibition in Osaka, a film about his work is shown.

In 1971, De werelden van M. C. Escher (Escher's Worlds) was published, the book was translated into English during the artist's lifetime.

Escher died on March 27, 1972 at the Diakonessehuis Hospital in Hilversum from bowel cancer. He was buried in Barn at the Nieuwe Algemeen Begraafsplaats cemetery.

Escher had three sons: George (1926), Arthur (1928) and Jan (1938). The eldest of them, George, regularly lectures on his father's work.

Creation

Although I am completely ignorant of the exact sciences, I sometimes feel that I am closer to mathematicians than to my fellow artists.

The plots of Escher's "classical" works ("Drawing Hands", "Metamorphoses", "Day and Night", "Reptiles", "Meeting", "House with Stairs", etc.) are characterized by a witty understanding of logical and plastic paradoxes. In combination with virtuoso technique, this makes a strong impression. Many of Escher's graphic and conceptual finds became symbols of the 20th century and subsequently were repeatedly reproduced or "cited" by other artists.

At the same time, Escher's work is emphatically elitist art. This even caused criticism of his work as incomprehensible to the average viewer.

In the process of work, the artist took ideas from mathematical articles that talked about the mosaic partitioning of the plane, the projection of three-dimensional figures onto the plane, non-Euclidean geometry, "impossible figures", the logic of three-dimensional space. Although Escher did not belong to the main stream of avant-garde art of the 20th century, it is believed that his work should be considered in the context of Einstein's theory of relativity, Freudian psychoanalysis, cubism and other achievements in the field of space-time relationships and their identity.

One of the most outstanding aspects of Escher's work is the depiction of the "metamorphoses" featured in different forms in many works. The artist explores in detail the gradual transition from one geometric figure to another, through minor changes in outlines. In addition, Escher repeatedly painted metamorphoses that occur with living beings (birds turn into fish, etc.) and even “animated” inanimate objects during metamorphosis, turning them into living beings.

Maurits Escher was one of the first to depict fractals in his mosaic paintings. During the XII World Mathematical Congress in Amsterdam in 1954, an exhibition of Escher's works was opened. A mathematical description of fractals was proposed only in the 1970s (the term "fractal" was introduced in 1975).

In many of Escher's paintings, there is a demonstration of an ordered section of a plane or filling it with identical forms, which, without gaps, tightly adjoin each other (inspired by the "Moorish" medieval style).

landscapes

During his stays in Italy, Switzerland and Belgium, Escher created several dozen landscapes, mostly woodcuts, carefully drawn and executed in an absolutely realistic style (with the exception of the early lithograph "Forest near Menton", reminiscent of the early work of Piet Mondrian). These are mainly the results of Escher's travels in Italy, Corsica and Malta. In 1939 he also executed a series of views of Delft. But in these landscapes, for example, "Bonifacio, Corsica" or "Roofs of Siena", an unusual perspective is already visible: views of cities are given from above or from a great distance. In the later work of Maurits Escher, this perspective was developed to create optical illusions.

mosaics

It is mathematically proven that regular tiling of the plane is possible only with three regular polygons: a triangle, a square and a hexagon. Escher was interested in both regular and irregular tilings. Besides the fact that the artist used irregular mosaics (forming non-repeating patterns), he worked a lot with metamorphoses, changing polygons into zoomorphic shapes that fill the surface. Interest in mosaics emerged in 1936 during a trip to Spain, influenced by the geometric patterns of the Alhambra.

The artist was not only interested in the irregular filling of the plane, calling it a game, he combined experiments with filling the plane with experiments with transitions of the plane into volume and vice versa (“Reptiles”).

Polyhedra

Polyhedra in Escher's works play the role of both the main figure and auxiliary elements. In the works “Order and Chaos” and “Stars”, the artist uses non-geometric forms to enhance the impression of the correctness of the central figures: in the first of the mentioned works, a chaotic collection of unnecessary, broken, broken objects is reflected in the symbol of order and beauty, and in the second, in a construction of three Regular hollow octahedra are inhabited by two chameleons.

Polygons, like spheres, are used in Escher's work to create perspective. The last lithograph in the series of polygons was Gravity. It depicts a dodecahedron formed by twelve flat five-pointed stars. On each of the sites lives a long-necked, four-legged, tailless fantastic animal; its torso is in a pyramid, into the holes of which it protrudes its limbs, the top of the pyramid is one of the walls of the dwelling of a neighboring monster. Pyramids simultaneously act as both walls and floors: lithography serves as a transition to the relativity group.

Spirals

There are three main types of spirals used by Escher in his works: mosaic spirals (for example, the engraving "Whirlpools", in which the artist worked on an infinite set in relation to filling the surface), surface formation (for example, in the engraving "Spherical Spirals" 4 ribbons forming a spherical surface, passing from pole to pole, infinitely small at the poles and wide towards the equator), twisting the spirals into themselves (work "Spirals").

space shape

Escher was concerned with the features of the transition from plane to space, the interaction of two-dimensional figures with a certain shape and three-dimensional creatures that can move in space. Escher sought illustrate the dynamics of the phenomenon, and saw the absurdity in the fact that several drawn lines can be perceived by the eye as a three-dimensional figure. An example of a work in which the artist studied such perception is in the work "Three intersecting planes", where each plane, made up of square tiles arranged in a checkerboard pattern, is reduced in perspective to a point, the three resulting points form an equilateral triangle. In addition, Escher worked on filling the space; in his opinion, of the works created on this topic, the third “Circle Limit” can be considered ideal in terms of composition (fish-like figures decrease with distance from the center of the circle, densely filling the surface; such a decrease can be infinite; at the same time, the picture demonstrates one of the types of non-Euclidean space, described by Henri Poincare: theoretically, a person in this space will not feel anything unusual, but will not be able to draw figures with four right angles connected by straight lines, since squares and rectangles do not exist in this space).

Of the well-known works of Escher related to the form of space, one can also name his Möbius strips.

The logic of space

As a picture, which explores both the logic of space and its topology, one can name the lithograph "Exhibition of Engravings". The central part of the space is stretched, while it curves clockwise around the unfilled center. Bottom right entrance; following the gallery, the reader comes to the lower left corner, in which the young man stands, four times larger in size than the first. The young man examines the steamer depicted in the engraving, which goes to the left; it depicts boats, a canal, houses; a woman peeps out of one of the windows, looking ... at the roof of the gallery in which the young man is located.

The artist created optical illusions in his paintings, mainly with the help of chiaroscuro. For example, in the painting "Cube with Stripes" it is impossible to determine in which direction the voluminous "buttons" located on the ribbon are facing.

In addition, Escher's paintings, which depict various "impossible figures" are "playing" with the logic of space; Escher depicted them both separately and in plot lithographs and engravings, the most notable of which is probably the Waterfall lithograph, based on an impossible triangle (Penrose triangle). The waterfall plays the role of a perpetual motion machine, and the towers seem to be the same height, although each of them is one floor less than the next. Escher's other two engravings with impossible figures are Belvedere and Descending and Ascending. All three were created between 1958 and 1961.

Escher has been working with problems of perspective since early prints ("Tower of Babel"); decades after its creation, work on perspective was no longer carried out for the sake of interesting angles, but also to create semi-absurd works that allow one and the same object to be viewed from different points within the framework of a single picture (“Another World II”, “Above and Below”). For example, on the lithograph “Above and Below”, the artist placed five “vanishing points” at once (points that “inform” the human eye about the infinity of space).

Self-reproduction and information

The most complete study of this issue in the artist's work is covered in Douglas Hofstadter's book "Gödel, Escher, Bach: this endless garland" ("Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid"), published in 1980 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

The theme of self-reproduction is most obvious in the lithograph “Drawing Hands”: the hands are well drawn, emerging from the cuffs that have just been sketched; each of the hands draws the cuffs of the adjacent arm. A "strange loop" arises, in which the levels of the drawing and the drawn are mutually closed on each other.

Hofstadter calls a group of paintings by Escher "recursive", in which "the background can be considered as a separate independent drawing", and the first drawing in relation to the second is the background.

Design

During his life, Escher created a large number of design works commissioned by various organizations. The largest (length 48 m) is the work "Metamorphosis III", made in 1968 (opened to the public on February 20, 1969) commissioned by the Royal Post of the Netherlands (PTT) and consisting of a combination of various motifs and colors (in fact, it is a greatly enlarged version of the work 1939 "Metamorphosis II"). For a long time it hung in The Hague at the post office on Kerkplein, but on January 17, 2008, due to the relocation of the post office, it was moved to Schiphol Airport, where it hangs in one of the departure halls.

Among other things, Escher has also designed wrapping paper for several companies, including a large chain of stores in the Netherlands. De Bijenkorf, postage stamps, banknotes, bookplates for your friends, ceiling lamp for the main building of the company Philips in Eindhoven, three columns for a school in The Hague and a relief for another school, also in The Hague. Most of these projects have not been implemented.

Heritage

In 1968, 4 years before his death, Escher created a foundation The M. C. Escher Foundation in order to "preserve his legacy". The M. C. Escher Foundation continues to organize exhibitions of the artist's works, publish books and films about him and his work. However, the Foundation did not inherit his copyright.

Acts as copyright owner This foundation manages all copyright in Escher's work, including all images and text, both oral and written. Even though he is based in the Netherlands, The M.C. Escher Company B.V. takes a very active part in the elimination of copyright infringement in the United States. In particular, the fund recently won a case against an American trading firm rock walker.

In 2002, in The Hague, in the former royal palace, formerly used as an exhibition hall (Dutch. Het Paleis), the Escher Museum was opened, which exhibits his most famous graphic works.

On the wall of the boarding house in Ravello, where Escher stayed and where, in particular, he met his future wife, there is a memorial plaque.

• Asher was left-handed.
• An asteroid discovered in 1985 is named after Escher.
• The image of the lithograph "Relativity" is regularly used in other works of art: it is present in one of the rooms of the Goblin City in the film "Labyrinth", the characters of the animated series "Futurama" in the series "I, Roommate" during the search for an apartment for one of the heroes are visited, among other things, " Escher's house, the image is present in the Red Hot Chili Peppers video for the song other side.
• In the song "Weird Al" Yankovic White & Nerdy, which parodies the image of a nerd, has the line "MC Escher that's my favorite MC".

Dated 1938. Lithograph, dimensions: 47.5 by 27.9 cm. This is the work of the famous Dutch graphic artist, known for complex conceptual engravings and lithographs, in many ways closely intertwined with mathematics, geometry and the desire to embody impossible realities. […]

Maurits Cornelis Escher is a graphic artist best known for his lithographs and engravings. His works are directed mainly to the psychological study of three-dimensional objects. He paid great attention to the concepts of space distortion, infinity and symmetry. […]

Maurits Escher was an outstanding Austrian graphic artist. His engravings, mosaics and lithographs reveal not only artistic genres, but also philosophical categories such as infinity, absolute symmetry, the golden ratio, well […]

M. Escher is an outstanding graphic artist. His works are individual and filled with scientific meaning. With the help of painting, the artist depicted various scientific theories, sometimes of a dubious nature. He took the universe apart and drew his associations. Him […]

Escher in this canvas masterfully uses a technique called tessellation. Thanks to this technique, the master very skillfully divides one plane into several parts. In this way, he manages to cover the entire canvas with planes that […]

“Mathematicians opened the door leading to another world, but did not dare to enter this world themselves. They are more interested in the path on which the door stands than in the garden beyond it.
(M.C. Escher)

Lithograph "Hand with a mirror sphere", self-portrait.

Maurits Cornelius Escher is a Dutch graphic artist known to every mathematician.
The plots of Escher's works are characterized by a witty comprehension of logical and plastic paradoxes.
He is known, first of all, for his works in which he used various mathematical concepts - from the limit and the Möbius strip to Lobachevsky geometry.

Woodcut "Red ants".

Maurits Escher did not receive a special mathematical education. But from the very beginning of his creative career, he was interested in the properties of space, studied its unexpected sides.

"The Bonds of Unity".

Often Escher dabbled with combinations of 2D and 3D worlds.


Lithograph "Drawing Hands".

Lithograph "Reptiles".

Tessellations.

A tiling is a division of a plane into identical figures. To study this kind of partitions, the notion of a symmetry group is traditionally used. Imagine a plane on which some tiling is drawn. The plane can be rotated around an arbitrary axis and shifted. The shift is defined by the shift vector, while the rotation is defined by the center and angle. Such transformations are called movements. It is said that this or that movement is a symmetry if after it the tiling passes into itself.

Consider, for example, a plane divided into identical squares - an endless in all directions sheet of a notebook in a cage. If such a plane is rotated by 90 degrees (180, 270 or 360 degrees) around the center of any square, the tiling will turn into itself. It also goes into itself when shifted by a vector parallel to one of the sides of the squares. The length of the vector must be a multiple of the side of the square.

In 1924, geometer George Polia (before moving to the USA, György Poya) published a work on the symmetry groups of tilings, in which he proved a remarkable fact (although already discovered in 1891 by the Russian mathematician Evgraf Fedorov, and later safely forgotten): there are only 17 groups symmetries that include shifts in at least two different directions. In 1936, Escher, having become interested in Moorish ornaments (from a geometric point of view, a variant of tiling), read the work of Polia. Despite the fact that he, by his own admission, did not understand all the mathematics behind the work, Escher managed to capture its geometric essence. As a result, based on all 17 groups, Escher created more than 40 works.

Mosaic.

Woodcut "Day and Night".

"Regular tiling of the plane IV".

Woodcut "Sky and Water".

Tessellations. The group is simple, generative: sliding symmetry and parallel translation. But the tiling tiles are wonderful. And in combination with the Möbius strip, that's it.


Woodcut "Horsemen".

Another variation on the theme of a flat and 3D world and tilings.


Lithograph "Magic Mirror".

Escher was friends with the physicist Roger Penrose. In his free time from physics, Penrose was engaged in solving mathematical puzzles. One day he came up with the following idea: if you imagine a tessellation consisting of more than one figure, will its symmetry group differ from those described by Polia? As it turned out, the answer to this question is in the affirmative - this is how the Penrose mosaic was born. In the 1980s, it was found to be related to quasicrystals (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2011).

However, Escher did not have time (or, perhaps, did not want to) use this mosaic in his work. (But there is an absolutely wonderful Penrose mosaic "Penrose Hens", they were not painted by Escher.)

Lobachevsky plane.

The fifth in the list of axioms in the "Elements" of Euclid in Heiberg's reconstruction is the following statement: if a line intersecting two lines forms interior one-sided angles less than two lines, then, extended indefinitely, these two lines will meet on the side where the angles are less than two lines . In modern literature, an equivalent and more elegant formulation is preferred: through a point that does not lie on a line, there passes a line parallel to the given one, and moreover, only one. But even in this formulation, the axiom, unlike the rest of Euclid's postulates, looks cumbersome and confusing - which is why scientists have been trying to derive this statement from the rest of the axioms for two thousand years. That is, in fact, to turn a postulate into a theorem.

In the 19th century, the mathematician Nikolai Lobachevsky tried to do this by contradiction: he assumed that the postulate was wrong and tried to find a contradiction. But it was not found - and as a result, Lobachevsky built a new geometry. In it, through a point that does not lie on a line, there passes an infinite number of different lines that do not intersect with the given one. Lobachevsky was not the first to discover this new geometry. But he was the first who dared to declare it publicly - for which, of course, he was ridiculed.

The posthumous recognition of Lobachevsky's work took place, among other things, due to the appearance of models of his geometry - systems of objects on the usual Euclidean plane, which satisfied all of Euclid's axioms, with the exception of the fifth postulate. One of these models was proposed by the mathematician and physicist Henri Poincaré in 1882 for the needs of functional and complex analysis.

Let there be a circle whose boundary we call the absolute. The "points" in our model will be the interior points of the circle. The role of "straight lines" is played by circles or straight lines perpendicular to the absolute (more precisely, their arcs that fall inside the circle). The fact that the fifth postulate is not fulfilled for such "straight lines" is practically obvious. The fact that the rest of the postulates are fulfilled for these objects is a little less obvious, however, this is true.

It turns out that in the Poincaré model it is possible to determine the distance between points. To calculate the length, the concept of a Riemannian metric is required. Its properties are as follows: the closer a pair of points "straight" to the absolute, the greater the distance between them. Also between the "straight lines" the angles are defined - these are the angles between the tangents at the point of intersection of the "straight lines".

Now let's get back to tilings. How will they look if the Poincaré model is already divided into identical regular polygons (that is, polygons with all equal sides and angles)? For example, polygons should get smaller the closer they are to the absolute. This idea was realized by Escher in the series of works "Circle Limit". However, the Dutchman did not use the correct partitions, but their more symmetrical versions. The case where beauty was more important than mathematical accuracy.

Woodcut "Limit - circle II".

Woodcut "Limit - Circle III".

Woodcut "Heaven and Hell".

Impossible figures.

It is customary to call impossible figures special optical illusions - they seem to be an image of some three-dimensional object on a plane. But upon closer examination, geometric contradictions are found in their structure. Impossible figures are interesting not only for mathematicians - they are also studied by psychologists and design specialists.

The great-grandfather of impossible figures is the so-called Necker cube, the familiar representation of a cube on a plane. It was proposed by the Swedish crystallographer Louis Necker in 1832. The peculiarity of this image is that it can be interpreted in different ways. For example, the corner indicated in this figure by a red circle can be both closest to us from all corners of the cube, and, conversely, the farthest.

The first true impossible figures as such were created by another Swedish scientist, Oskar Ruthersvärd, in the 1930s. In particular, he came up with the idea of ​​​​assembling a triangle from cubes, which cannot exist in nature. Independently of Ruthersward, the aforementioned Roger Penrose, together with his father Lionel Penrose, published a paper in the British Journal of Psychology called Impossible Objects: A Special Type of Optical Illusion (1956). In it, the Penroses proposed two such objects - the Penrose triangle (a solid version of Ruthersward's construction of cubes) and the Penrose stairs. They named Maurits Escher as the inspiration for their work.

Both objects - both the triangle and the staircase - later appeared in Escher's paintings.

Lithograph "Relativity".

Lithograph "Waterfall".

Lithograph "Belvedere".

Lithograph "Ascent and descent".

Other works with mathematical meaning:

Star polygons:

Woodcut "Stars".

Lithograph "Cubic division of space".

Lithograph "Surface covered with ripples".

Lithograph "Three Worlds"