Maurits Cornelis Escher (Parents: George Arnold Escher, a civil engineer, and Sara Gleichman; Spouse: Jetta Umiker; Children: George, Arthur, and Jan)
Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898–1972), commonly known as M.C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist who created some of the most iconic and mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints of the 20th century. Despite having no formal mathematical training, his work features profound visual explorations of infinity, reflection, symmetry, perspective, impossible geometry, and tessellations.
Born in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, Escher initially enrolled in the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem to study architecture. However, after showing his drawings to the graphic artist Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, he was encouraged to shift his focus to the decorative arts and printmaking, a medium he would go on to master.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Escher lived in and traveled extensively through Italy, Switzerland, and Spain. His visits to the Alhambra in Granada and the Mezquita in Córdoba were pivotal; the intricate, interlocking Moorish tile work he observed there ignited a lifelong fascination with the regular division of the plane (tessellation).
Escher is most famous for his “impossible constructions” and visual paradoxes. Works such as Drawing Hands (1948), Relativity (1953), and Ascending and Descending (1960) play with the viewer’s perception of gravity and logic. His transformation prints, such as the Metamorphosis series, seamlessly morph geometric shapes into recognizable forms, like birds turning into fish, in an endless cycle.
By the 1950s, his work had caught the attention of prominent mathematicians and crystallographers, including Roger Penrose and H.S.M. Coxeter, leading to a mutual exchange of ideas between his art and their science. Today, Escher’s work remains uniquely positioned at the intersection of art, mathematics, and psychology.
Active in others filds : Book Illustration, Tapestry Design, Mural Design, Postage Stamp Design.
