"Relativity," by M. C. Escher; 1953.
When I was little – and even now, at times, when I go back home for vacations – one of my favorite things to do on a slow afternoon was to spend hours poring over our large book of M. C. Escher graphics. If I was in a very artistic mood, I would even try to copy them, which led to much frustration (and exasperated pencil-throwing) as I remembered for the umpteenth time that drawing is slightly difficult. My mother must have loved that book; I am sure that she breathed a sigh of relief whenever she saw me holding it, knowing that it would keep me contented and quiet for at least a little while.
Maurits Cornelis Escher was born on June 17, 1898, in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. He was the fourth and youngest son of a civil engineer. Escher never showed much promise at school, and after failing his high school exams, he enrolled instead in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem. But Architecture and Decorative Arts apparently did not capture his imagination either, and after only one week, he decided to devote his time to graphic art.
After finishing school, Escher travelled extensively in Italy, where he met his wife. They married in 1924 and made their home in Rome, where their three sons were born. First forced by the political climate in Italy and then by the Second World War, Escher and his family moved several times between 1935 and 1941, when the finally settled in Baarn, Netherlands, where Escher lived until 1970.
During his lifetime, Escher made 448 lithographs, woodcuts, and wood engravings, and over 2000 drawings and sketches. Escher is most famous for his compositions featuring impossible objects and exploring such concepts as infinity, reflection, symmetry, perspective, and tessellation. Perhaps drawing inspiration from his time in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts, many of Escher's works include impossible architectural structures, such as "Relativity," pictured above, often inhabited by industrious-looking little figures.
