M. C. Escher
Escher's father, G. A. Escher 1916
linocut, printed in purple ink
Escher Collection, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague, the Netherlands
© The M. C. Escher Company, the Netherlands. All rights reserved
M. C. Escher
Self-portrait 1919
woodcut
Escher Collection, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague, the Netherlands
© The M. C. Escher Company, the Netherlands. All rights reserved
M. C. Escher
Fireworks November 1933
lithograph
Escher Collection, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague, the Netherlands
© The M. C. Escher Company, the Netherlands. All rights reserved
M. C. Escher
Blowball July 1943
wood engraving, intaglio printed
Escher Collection, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague, the Netherlands
© The M. C. Escher Company, the Netherlands. All rights reserved
M. C. Escher
Nocturnal Rome: Trajan’s Column April 1934
woodcut
Escher Collection, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague, the Netherlands
© The M. C. Escher Company, the Netherlands. All rights reserved
Escher was a printmaker par excellence. He made his first print when he was seventeen and his last when he was seventy-one, mastering a number of complex techniques including woodcut, lithography and mezzotint.
Prints are works produced in multiples by transferring an image from a printing surface, called a matrix, onto paper. Usually the matrix is a block of wood, a metal plate or a lithographic stone. The image drawn onto the matrix is reversed in the process of printing.
Escher's preferred printing techniques were woodcut and wood engraving, of which he made over 300, all printed by hand using either the back of a small ivory spoon or a rolling pin for larger works - the Dutch inscription
eigen druk ('own printing') appears in pencil below many of these works. He also made more than seventy lithographs. Escher's lithographs were made in limited editions that, because of the complexity of the process, were printed by a specialist lithographer.
Escher was attracted to printmaking for three reasons: the desire for multiplication, the beauty of the craft and the imposed limitations of each printing technique - that is, he enjoyed the strict discipline involved in printmaking, which he viewed as order in the face of chaos.
Learn more about Escher's printmaking techniques
Escher Collection, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague, the Netherlands
© The M. C. Escher Company, the Netherlands. All rights reserved
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