Maurits Cornelis Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher (M.C. Escher) was a graphic artist in the 1900s during the time of World War II. M.C. Escher is famous for his woodcuts and lithographs. Among those are Day and Night, and Coast of Amalfi. Maurits Cornelis Escher had an interesting childhood. He was born on June 7, 1898 in Leewarden, which is the capital of the province of Friesland, in the Netherlands. Escher lived in a grand house called "Princesshof". "Princesshof" is now a museum showing many of his best works. At the age of seven he started learning both carpentry and how to play the piano. Maurits spent most of his youth in Arnhem, where he attended both elementary and secondary school. Although his marks were poor in secondary school and he never graduated because he failed the tests, his teachers took a liking to his talents and taught him how to make linocuts. His drawing teacher was F.W. van der Haagen. Van der Haagen helped Escher make linoleum cuts. Escher's father wished for him to go to Haarlem to study architecture at the School for the Architectural and Decorative Arts, and he agreed. Soon after he arrived at the school, Maurits was encouraged to drop architecture and stick to decorative arts. Escher agreed because he had already decided that he liked the decorative arts better. Sadly, Maurits was rejected from doing military services and could not continue school. It was during this time that he began to use the beautiful medium of woodcuts. In the year of 1913 Maurits went to religious and met Bast Kist who was also interested in printing. The two friends visited Gert Segman who had a printing press in his studio. Many of Escher's works were printed in Segmans studio. Later, in 1917 Escher moved to Oosterbeck, Holland. For a few years, he and his friends became very interested in literature, Escher even wrote a few poems of his own.

Encyclopedia:

Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. January 2003. Volumes 2-(Art(M.C Escher), 9-10 (M.C. Escher).

Websites:

Corden Art B.V. Baarn the Netherlands. [Online] Available http://www.M.C.Escher.com, January 2004.

M.C. Escher Company B.V. [Online] Available http://www.mcescher.com, January 2004.

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