Day and night
1938
Medium
woodcut printed in grey and black ink on Japanese paper
Measurements
39.9 × 67.7 cm (image and block) 45.3 × 73.7 cm (sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Carol Sisson, Carolyn Stubbs, NGV Foundation and the Escher Appeal Donors, 2019
© 2019 The M.C. Escher Company-The Netherlands. all rights reserved. www.mcescher.com
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Day and night is one of Escher’s most famous and popular images. This complex print plays with symmetry, duality and optical illusion, and relies on metamorphosis of form as well as figure-ground reversals to achieve its ingenious effects. It shows both day (light) and night (dark) breaking over a Dutch landscape of mirrored towns and waterways as flocks of black and white birds cross flight paths. Each flock gradually emerges from the changing shape of the other, and the birds evolve into three-dimensional forms out of the fields below. This extraordinary feat of imagination and craftsmanship reinforces the impossibility of the invented scene.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Brussels, Belgium; Baarn, the Netherlands
Catalogue/s Raisonné
Bool 303
Inscription
printed (in relief) in ink (in image) u.r.: MCE / II-‘33
inscribed in pencil l.l.: M.C. Escher (underlined)
inscribed in pencil l.r.: eigen druk
Accession Number
2019.314
Departments
International Prints / International Prints and Drawings