Maurits Cornelis EscherNederländerna, 1898–1972

Life Force

1919 · Print

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Life Force, M. C. Escher’s linocut of 1919, belongs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Large leaflike and petal-shaped forms curl over one another across an image 43.3 by 42 centimetres. Escher covered the printed Dutch title at the lower left with black ink. His pencil signature and the year remain at the lower right.

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Inventarienummer: 1983.109.6

Vad bilden föreställer

Botanical

I katalogen

Grafik Linoleumsnitt Modernismen 1900-talet Dutch

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

I Maurits Cornelis Eschers liv

Hela livet

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”.

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