Other World (Another World)

1947 · Print

May one see it?

Not receiving at present

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C., United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked: 10 days ago
In this state since: Aug 19, 2026
Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

Particulars

Accession number: 1984.31.1

What it shows

Optical illusion

In the catalog

Prints Woodcut Post-war art 20th century Dutch

Sources

National Gallery of Art
Image: National Gallery of Art — © the artist or rights holder

Meanwhile, in the life of Maurits Cornelis Escher

The whole life

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.

All works