San Cosimo

November 1923 – 1935

Rome and yearly journeys through Italy

From November 1923 Escher lived in Rome and until 1935 travelled each year for at least two months through Italy — Sicily, Abruzzo, Campania, and also Corsica, Malta and Tunisia; these journeys produced many landscapes whose perspective already hints at his later geometric experiments. He could not support his family on the sale of his work and lived on his father’s help.

1924–1935 · Lieu de travail

Rome

1930–1933

Illness, the book “Emblemata” and a Rijksmuseum purchase

In late 1930 and in 1931 Escher’s health worsened and his work slowed; G. J. Hoogewerf, director of the Dutch historical institute in Rome, suggested he write to magazines about some of his works and publish a book — the selected works appeared in 1932 as “Emblemata”. In 1933 the print room of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam acquired twenty-six of his works.