Butterfly
Butterfly.
March to June 1931
Woodcut
180 x 140 (7 1/8 x 5 ½”)
​
At the end of 1930, Escher returned home from southern Italy, defeated and depressed. He could not sell prints and suffered both physically and financially. He doubted his skills and questioned whether he should continue to work as an artist.
​​
The Dutch art historian G.J. Hoogewerff suggested to Escher that he make an emblemata, a collection of illustrated four-line epigrams with Latin mottos. Hoogewerff, under the pseudonym A.E. Drijfhout, provided many of the epigrams and subsequently praised Escher’s work in an article. The stimulation that Hoogewerff provided helped encourage Escher to press onward with his career.
​​
A swallowtail butterfly, a personal favorite, is surrounded by a mosaic of plants that all have their own highly symmetric elements, akin to the butterfly's wings. Escher weaves an asymmetric composition from multiple symmetric organisms that stays true to how Mother Nature organizes
the world. The Dutch eponym reads Fluttering over the flowers without sense of duty, my fragility is to be praised, directing your fragility. The Latin reads A fragile sign of immortality.
​​
​This exceptional woodcut is available. Please inquire. ​
​​​
Mosaic I (Plane-Filling I)
Mosaic I, 1951, Mezzotint​, 146 x 192mm (5 3/4 x 7 3/4”)
​​
Escher's Mosaic I was Escher's first aperiodic tessellation and last mezzotint. Escher found a way to fill the plane without a repeating pattern (aperiodic) and created these tessellations as an amusement for his son. He joked that he was a "spiritualistic medium controlled by the creatures he was conjuring up." Escher did very few mezzotints as he found working with the copper plate quite tedious although he loved the contrasts and rich blacks achieved.
​
This specific work bears a dated pencil dedication to Mies. Mies Rosenboom was a biology teacher and friend. She gave Escher advice when he created his "curl-up" - the bug-like chimera that rolled up into a wheel to travel - who later inhabited the House of Stairs. Curl-up became a lithograph shortly after this dedication. Dedicated works are among the rarest Escher artworks.
​​​
​This extraordinary dedicated mezzotint is available.​
​​​
Birds and Ponies
Birds and Ponies, aka, Horses and Birds, 1949
Wood Engraving
87 by 92 mm (3 3/8 x 2 7/8”) ​
​
Escher's Birds and Ponies shares a similar layout as the masterwork Sky and Water. In this case, an earth-dwelling pony fades into the sky to give way to birds and the birds rise from the ground like in the iconic Day and Night. Escher liked the tessellation enough to place it just right of center stage in Metamorphosis III...a whole 20 years after he created it. Prior to that, it adorned announcements for his exhibitions.
​​
This work is printed from the original block. ​The block was carved in September of 1949 and then used to print this invitation for the exhibit the following month at the Boymans Museum.
​​
A very few of these prints on cream paper without any lettering also exist. I have one of each available at this time.
​​
Preparatory sketch not for sale.
