M.c. to return to southern europe. he returned

M. C. Escher is one of the most famousgraphic artists and his art is enjoyed by millions of people. In his work he makes mathematical wood cuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Mezzotints are a prints made from an engravedcopper or steel plates that have been roughened to shade and scraped to makelight smooth areas. M. C. Escher has helped shape art today.

M. C. Escher was born on June 17, 1898 inthe Netherlands. He is the youngest of his five brothers and was raised by hismother and father, Sarah Escher and George Escher. Escher was influenced by hisfather’s civil engineering work but Escher struggled in mathematics.

At the age of 13 hisfamily moved to Arnhem. Escher was held back in school twice because of grades. He failed several of his final exams and never technically completed his high schooleducation.

As he grew up he went to school at Haarlem’s School for Architectural and Decorative Arts. MauriceCornelius Escher abandoned architecture to pursue graphic arts instead. Hisdecision to follow graphic arts paid off. M. C.

Escherand two of his friends left in April of 1922 for Italy. Both of them went back to Holland. Aftera couple of weeks in Florence, Italy, and Escher went on to San Gimignano withone of his friend’s sister. Escher did a lot of serious painting in SanGimignano, Volterra, and Sienna. He spent all of April going around Italy andpainting landscapes. Escher finally returned to Holland in June but he wasn’thappy, so he took his first opportunity to return to Southern Europe. Hereturned to Southern Europe by taking a freighter with a bunch of his friends.

The freighter he rode took him to Spain. He went to many of the museums inMadrid, also experiencing bull fights. He went to Toledo to draw missing hisexpress train he was supposed to take to Granada. In Granada he saw Arabicdecorative styles that he copied. He went from Spain to Italy by ship andenjoyed his trip. He spenthis time on the ship drawing it and playing cards with the people on. Hetravelled around Italy some more, and then settled for months in Siena. He loved the town so much that he calledthe town blessed.

Escher traveled around Italy some more, and in August of 1923 he had hisfirst one man show. During this time in his life he had something else toconcentrate on though. He met a lady named Jetta Umiker. In the middle of August he proposed to her.

On August 28he went to Zurich to meet the family, they decided to marry and live in Italy. They bought a house under construction inRome in March 1925, and finally moved there in October. In June, 1926, Escherand his wife bought a new, bigger house that was under construction to preparefor a larger family.

In late July he had a son named George Escher. He had a bunch of shows now in Holland so he decided to visit hisparents. When he visited he started a detailed portrait of his father. August 1935, Escher and his family moved to Chateau-d’Oex, Switzerland. Living inSwitzerland was expensive and Jetta missed the living in Italy because she losta lot of her social life. Even though it was expensive Escher finished severalwoodcuts and a lithograph. As the fall passed into winter Escher’s family grew accustomed to theirnew home in Switzerland. Jetta took up her hobby of piano again, and Escherjoined the local chess club.

M. C. Escher’s children enjoyed playing in the snow. In December of that year Escher made alithograph of a farmer’s shed on a hillside that was covered in snow, but he was disappointed with the way theresult turned out. His son George later started to missed the warmth of Italy. In early 1936, Escher wanted to take a trip back to southern Europe. Hemade a deal with the shipping company to make prints of the company’s ship forfree passage on the company’s vessels they had. They replied to his letter, and theyaccepted his offer for free passage for prints of ships.

In April he rode on one of the ships tothe place called Trieste. Escher’s trip took him too many places like Venice, Ancona, Bari, andPalermo. Jetta, Escher’s wife, joined him on his journey in the middle of May. On his trip he made around nine different prints that almost all were woodcuts. This trip was going to be the lastextended trip through Italy. The War effected Escher in a personal way.

One of his old teachers was Jewishand was taken by the Nazis and killed. Escher helped transfer his teachers workfrom the Museum in Amsterdam when he died. Escher organized a memorial show forhis teacher at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. At the end of the war Escher participated in a show for p