http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI-b9ye4RqY

It’s almost impossible that you haven’t seen an image of Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972). With his typical art that is challenging for the eye and the brain he gained world wide fame. Maybe you haven’t seem his art in real life, but the chances are you encountered him online, since he has a huge range of websites on the internet.

He is the most famous for his drawings that seem impossible. Weird steps, climbs, turns and the relativity of it all makes you cross eyed and slightly confused. It’s almost impossible not to linger over one of his mystery paintings. But besides that, he also made metamorphosis famous. He made Metamorphosis One, Two and Three: air, water and reptiles. In those creations you would always see smaller images within one big image.

Escher was born in Leeuwarden. He was the fourth child and the youngest as well. His family moved to Delft, and most of his youth was spent there. After failing for his graduation, the young artist started taking classes in architecture at the School voor Bouwkunde en Sierende Kunsten. This school was located in Haarlem.

It took him a week to decide this was not what he wanted. He told his father he wanted to quit and wanted to study graphic arts. His teacher, who had seen his work, supported the young Escher in his decision. He finished school, and decided to travel. Italy was especially one of his favorite places. Here he met his wife Jetta Umiker. They got married in 1924 and moved to Rome. The couple lived there for eleven years, and Escher kept traveling to Italy to be inspired and to create drawings and sketches. At home he made prints out of them.

During his time in Italy, he also went through a period in which he focused more on reality. He made more realistic paintings in that period, like the litho Castrovalva. In this painting it is easy to see how fascinated the artist was with the ability to see height, depth and seeing up close and far away. In 1939, he made one litho called Atrani. This was a painting showing a small village at the coast of Italy. But realistic or not, he decided to use it in one of his masterpieces of Metamorphosis One as well.

During his life Echer made 448 pieces of art out of litho’s and wooden art. He also made over 2000 drawings and sketches. He was left handed, like many other artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.

But this wasn’t all he did. Escher also illustrated books, designed rugs, stamps and wall paintings.