Wild West

1917–1918

Oosterbeek, failed examinations and Delft

In 1917 the family moved to Oosterbeek, a suburb of Arnhem; Escher and his friends were passionate about literature and he wrote poems and essays, but he failed four final examinations and was left without a school-leaving certificate. A mistake in Dutch law nevertheless let him obtain a deferment from military service, and in 1918 he began architecture classes at the Technical College of Delft, but poor health made him fail to cope with the course.

1919–1922

The Haarlem school and his teacher Mesquita

In 1919 Escher entered the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts, where he learned drawing and woodcut; he soon gave up architecture for decorative arts and graduated in 1922. A huge influence on him was his teacher, the artist Samuel de Mesquita, with whom he remained friends until 1944; he chose the career of an engraver rather than an oil painter quite deliberately — according to the scholar Hans Locher, he was drawn by the possibility of making many impressions.

1921

First journey abroad: Italy and the Riviera

In 1921 Escher travelled abroad for the first time, with his family, to northern Italy and the French Riviera: Italian Renaissance art made a very strong impression on him, he drew olive trees and began experiments with spheres and mirrors. His engravings illustrated his friend Ad van Stolk’s humorous booklet “Flor de Pascua”; the first work to sell in large numbers was “St Francis Preaching to the Birds”.

April – June 1922

Italy in the spring of 1922: San Gimignano and Siena

In April 1922 Escher left for Italy with two friends — by legend his mother saw him off with the words “My son, don’t smoke too much”. The friends soon turned back from Florence, but he went on to San Gimignano, drew Volterra and Siena, saw the fluorescent sea for the first time, spent the whole spring outside the city drawing landscapes, plants and insects, visited Assisi, Ravenna, Venice, Padua and Milan, and in June returned to Oosterbeek, intending to move to Italy for good.

September 1922

Spain and the Alhambra: the Moorish pattern

In September 1922 Escher sailed to Spain — Barcelona, Madrid, a bullfight, then Granada, where he studied the Moorish style at the Alhambra. The intricate geometric ornaments of the Alhambra — interlocking repetitive patterns in coloured tiles and carved into walls — woke his interest in the mathematics of tessellation and left a lasting mark on his work.

November 1922 – August 1923

Siena: the first solo exhibition

Back in Italy, Escher settled in Siena in November 1922, where his first solo exhibition took place in August 1923 — he managed to sell one work.