Up and Down

1 February 1944 – 1946

The death of his teacher Mesquita

On 1 February 1944 the Nazis arrested Samuel de Mesquita, who was of Jewish origin, with his family and sent them to Auschwitz; almost at once after arrival — presumably on 11 February — he and his wife were killed in the gas chamber. Escher helped to send his teacher’s works to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, keeping for himself a single sketch bearing the print of a German boot, and in 1946 organised a memorial exhibition there.

c. 1945

The end of the occupation: a diploma and an exhibition of the unyielding

Escher lived through the German occupation in the Netherlands. Before the end of the war he designed a diploma for the Temporary Academy in Eindhoven — an institution in the liberated south-east of the country — and immediately after the war he took part in an exhibition of artists who had refused to collaborate with the Nazi regime.

1946–1951

Mezzotint: a brief experiment

In 1946 Escher became interested in intaglio printing, but it took too much time: until 1951 he made no more than seven mezzotint prints and never returned to intaglio, preferring tonal contrast to linear outline. These few works are considered masterpieces of the technique.

1949

Rotterdam: a large exhibition of graphic work

In 1949 Escher and two other artists held a large exhibition of their graphic work in Rotterdam; several works were sold, and the artists explained how they were made — Escher, for instance, said that for “Reptiles” he modelled a small plasticine figure and moved it across a table.