FREE ESSAY ON ESCHER

ESCHER

Maurits Cornelius Escher was born on June 17th, 1898 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. His
father was a civil engineer. Escher's great skill for art and drawing was realized at an
early age. This led his father to decide to send him to study at the School of
Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem. But, when he was 21 years old, Escher gave
up architecture to study in the field of graphic arts. 
Escher spent most of his life travelling in Europe looking for inspiration for his works.
In 1921 he got married and stayed in Rome. This is when his works of art began to show
landscapes with impossible perspectives.
In the 1930s, Fascism in Italy made life impossible for Escher and his family, so they
moved to Switzerland. In 1936, Escher visited the Alhambra in Granada. The Moorish tiling
he came across was amazing too him.
Escher read and understood Polya's paper on the 17 planes of symmetry, even though he
didn't understand all of the ideas in the paper. Between 1936 and 1942 Escher
concentrated on colored drawings using all of the different symmetry types. He invented a
highly mathematical system of study using a process which he invented himself.
In 1941, Escher went home to the Netherlands. His popularity began to grow, and in the
1950s, articles on his work were written. His drawings of symmetry began to be displayed
in science museums more than art galleries.
In his later years several books were published about him. One of these books described
his works of art as he neared death. 
"When Escher's view of the world turned inward he produced his best known puzzling
prints, which, art aside, were truly intellectually playful, yet he was not. His life
turned inward, he cut himself off and he had few friends. ... He died after a protracted
illness..."
Escher died on March 27th, 1972, in the Netherlands.