M. C. Escher

M.C. Escher in 1971

A sculpture made from a drawing by M.C. Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher (17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972), usually referred to as M. C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture and tessellations (tilings).

During his life, Escher made 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings. He did over 2000 drawings and sketches. He also illustrated books, designed tapestries, postage stamps and murals. Escher was interested in different ways of making art, he used tile-like repeated patterns in many of his paintings. Early in his career he drew inspirations of nature: he studied art, landscapes and insects. Some of Escher’s most famous drawings include: Drawing hands, Relativity and Flying Fish. Most of his works were related to mathematics.

M. C. Escher Media

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  Escher's birth house, now part of the Princessehof Ceramics Museum, in Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands

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  Moorish tessellations including this one at the Alhambra inspired Escher's work with tilings of the plane. He made sketches of this and other Alhambra patterns in 1936.

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  Escher at work on Sphere Surface with Fish (1958) in his workshop, using a mahlstick for support, late 1950s

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  The Escher Museum in The Hague. The poster shows a detail from Day and Night, 1938.

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  Wall tableau of one of Escher's bird tessellations at the Princessehof Ceramics Museum in Leeuwarden