
Maurits Cornelis EscherDutch, 1898–1972Design for writing-paper for Chinese script
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Design for writing-paper for Chinese script” now? Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Washington, D.C., United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
Details
- Accession number
- 1974.28.18
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- National Gallery of Art
- Image: National Gallery of Art — © the artist or rights holder
In the life of Maurits Cornelis Escher
The whole life1 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.








![Ginevra de' Benci [obverse], Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1474/1478](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/8f29e3c9-a289-4d53-abf0-31a66e9e98fa/full/!2400,2400/0/default.jpg)
![Wreath of Laurel, Palm, and Juniper with a Scroll inscribed Virtutem Forma Decorat [reverse], Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1474/1478](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/ff62e8d0-45c4-498f-ad36-6358de827e04/full/!2400,2400/0/default.jpg)










