Tree

March 1923 – 12 May 1924

Jetta Umiker: from Ravello to the wedding

In March 1923 in Ravello Escher first met Jetta (Giulietta) Umiker, the daughter of a Swiss industrialist who until 1917 had managed two textile factories at Nakhabino near Moscow; he declared himself at the last moment, when her family was already leaving for Switzerland. They became engaged and married on 12 May 1924 in Viareggio; on their honeymoon — via Genoa, Annecy, Paris and Brussels — the couple travelled to Oosterbeek, and then returned to live in Italy.

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.

12 juni 1924

Married: Jetta Umiker

1924–1935 · Werkzaam in

Rome

16 October 1925

The death of his brother Arnold; “The Days of Creation”

On 16 October 1925 Escher’s brother Arnold was killed in the mountains of South Tyrol, and the artist had to travel there to identify the body. It was after this that Escher made “The Days of Creation”.

July 1926

The birth of his son George

In July 1926 Escher and Jetta had a son, George, in Rome; King Victor Emmanuel III and Benito Mussolini attended the child’s christening. A second son, Arthur, was born in 1928.