The Early Years (1898–1922)

The world knows Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898–1972) as the man of impossible buildings, stairs that lead nowhere, and birds that turn into fish. But before he became this world-famous artist, he was a boy who struggled with school, loved nature, and only discovered late in life where his true talent lay. This is the story of his first 24 years, the years in which the foundation was laid for everything that was yet to come.

A Child in the Princessehof (1898–1903)

Maurits was born on June 17, 1898, in Leeuwarden, the capital of Friesland. He was the fifth and youngest son of George Arnold Escher. His father was a very intelligent man, a hydraulic engineer who had worked for years in Japan building harbors and dams. His mother was Sara Gleichman, George’s second wife. Maurits was given the nickname “Mauk”. He grew up in an environment of intellect and discipline, but also of comfort. The family lived in a beautiful city palace called the Princessehof. It is almost symbolic that this house later became a ceramics museum; the walls Mauk crawled through as a baby would later be filled with art.

As a child, Mauk was not very strong. He was often ill and had a fragile constitution. This meant he spent a lot of time indoors, where he learned to entertain himself by observing the things around him closely. His father encouraged his sons’ curiosity but also expected them to work hard.

The Arnhem Years and the Struggle at School (1903–1918)

In 1903, the family moved to Arnhem for the work of father George, who eventually retired in 1908. George wanted to live in a beautiful, green environment. Arnhem, with its parks and forests, was the perfect place for this. They moved into a large house on the Utrechtseweg. However, until 1906, Mauk (Maurits Cornelis) was not often in Arnhem; he could regularly be found in places like Zandvoort and Noordwijk aan Zee for rest and recuperation.

After sufficient recovery, the time of the Arnhem school benches began for the young Mauk, and that was not a happy period. Although he came from a family of scientists and engineers, Maurits was not an outstanding student. He had great difficulty concentrating, and most subjects simply did not interest him. There was, however, a budding interest in astronomy, music, and nature. Together with his father, he saw Halley’s Comet, among other things; the piano lessons were a pleasant distraction, and the long walks in nature were enlightening.

In 1912, he went to the HBS (Higher Secondary School) in Arnhem. It is one of the greatest ironies in art history that M.C. Escher, whose work would later be adored by mathematicians all over the world, failed mathematics at school. He did not understand the abstract formulas and the dry numbers. For him, the world had to be visual; he had to be able to see and touch it. He failed two years in secondary school. His teachers saw a quiet, somewhat dreamy boy who struggled to keep up.

However, there was one subject in which he excelled: drawing. His drawing teacher at the HBS (Higher Secondary School) was F.W. van der Haagen. Van der Haagen was an important figure in the life of the young Escher. He saw that Maurits had a special sense of composition and detail. He was the one who introduced Maurits to the technique of linocut.

Instead of working only with pencil on paper, Mauk learned how to cut shapes out of a soft material using small knives. One of his first known works from this period is a portrait of his father from 1916, made in purple ink. It was still simple, but the precision that would later make him famous was already visible. At secondary school, he also met several lifelong friends, including Bas Kist, Roosje Ingen Housz, and Jan and Fiet van der Does. Meanwhile, in March 1917, the family moved once again, this time from Arnhem to Oosterbeek.

In 1918, despite his difficult school career, Maurits finally obtained his diploma. His father had a clear plan for his youngest son: he was to become an architect. That was a respectable profession in which technology and drawing came together. Maurits enrolled at the Technical University in Delft. But Delft was a disaster. It soon became clear that Maurits would never become an engineer or architect in the sense his father had envisioned. He dropped out of his studies in Delft, to the disappointment of his family. However, Delft did produce his first publication (Groentijd in the Studenten Almanak) and the first autograph (ExLibris for Roosje Ingen Housz).

The Rescue in Haarlem: Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita (1919–1922)

After the turmoil in Delft, Maurits decided to try one more time with a course of study that aligned with his father’s wishes but offered more room for his creativity. In 1919, he moved to Haarlem to study at the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. He started out in the direction of architecture once again, but fate intervened.

He showed some of his graphic attempts (his linocuts and woodcuts) to the graphic arts teacher, Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. De Mesquita was a Jewish artist with a very distinctive, strong style. He immediately recognized that Maurits was a natural talent for printmaking. He convinced the young student and his parents that Maurits should immediately transfer to the graphic arts department. De Mesquita literally said that Maurits was too good to waste his time on architectural drawings.

Under De Mesquita’s guidance, Escher finally blossomed. In De Mesquita, he found not only a teacher, but also a mentor and a friend. De Mesquita taught him the technique of woodcutting. This is much more difficult than linoleum; wood is hard and has a grain that you have to take into account. You have to fight with the material.

During this period, Escher began to develop his own style. He was not yet working on ‘impossible worlds,’ but he was already experimenting with tessellations, contrast, and natural forms. The work *Flor de Pascua* contains many of these elements, including *The Scapegoat* and *Beautiful*. He was a diligent student. While other students might have gone out in Haarlem, Maurits would sit for hours bent over his wooden blocks, working with small chisels on details that were almost invisible to the naked eye.

By 1922, Maurits had completed his education. He had mastered his technique and was beginning to make a name for himself. A few publications, a few commissions, paid or unpaid, were just the beginning for the budding artist. Without the failure in Delft, the encouragement of De Mesquita, and the strict but loving upbringing by his father, the future Escher would never have emerged. In 1922, he packed his bags. His destination was Italy, and from that moment on, his art would change forever.

The Discovery of the South and Love (1922–1924)

Together with two friends, Escher set off by train to the south. On an earlier trip with his parents in 1921, he had already been introduced to Florence. Although he was impressed by the classical art of the Renaissance, it was above all the landscape of Tuscany that captivated him. His two friends, Jan and Bas, returned to the Netherlands after only two weeks; Escher remained in Italy. He toured Italy for about two months, visiting Siena, Perugia, Assisi, Ravenna, Venice, Padua, and Milan, among others. Everywhere there was something to see, sketch, and visit.

Back in the Netherlands, he showed his work to his teachers De Mesquita and Vercruysen, who were convinced that their pupil had taken an enthusiastic step forward in printmaking. Meanwhile, it was clear that he did not want to stay in the Netherlands for long; Italy and the South clearly beckoned him.

The Miracle of the Alhambra (Autumn 1922)

In September 1922, Escher decided to take a trip to Spain. He traveled by boat to Malaga and from there to Tarragona. Then by train to Barcelona, ​​and after about six days, his destination was Madrid. Via Toledo, he eventually arrived in Granada. In the Alhambra, Escher saw the Moorish mosaics for the first time. The walls were covered with tiles in geometric patterns that fit together perfectly. There was no empty space between the tiles. The Moors were forbidden by their faith from depicting people or animals, so they used abstract forms such as stars and diamonds. This was the seed from which a number of his later masterpieces would grow.

The Return to Italy and Love (1923)

After his Spanish adventure, Escher returned to Genoa, Italy, via Cadiz, in late 1922, only to end up in Siena again. He was now a more experienced artist. He worked hard on woodcuts of the Italian cities, but in March of that year, something happened that had nothing to do with art.
In the boarding house where he was staying, he met a young Swiss woman named Giulietta (Jetta) Umiker. Her family also lived in the boarding house because her father managed a textile factory there. Mauk, who was normally quite shy and reserved, fell in love instantly.
However, he was so insecure that he did not dare to express his feelings until months later. He drew her portrait and tried to impress her with his art. In the summer of 1923, just before her family was to return to Switzerland, he confessed his love to her during a walk. To his great happiness, Jetta felt the same way.

Letter to Jan: “The girl I told you about a few days ago has left for Switzerland with her parents. She exerted an influence on me similar to that of an electromagnet on a flimsy piece of cast iron […] And although I had firmly resolved to keep my feelings regarding her loveliness secret, her influence eventually became so powerful that on the last day before her departure, the cast iron lost its last shred of resistance….”

The struggle for the future (Winter 1923–1924)

The engagement to Jetta, however, brought challenges with it. Escher was a budding artist and earned hardly any money. His father, the engineer, was greatly worried and urged Maurits to seek a “real” job to support the future family. But Maurits was determined to remain an artist. In the winter of 1923 and the spring of 1924, with the help of his father, he prepared for his first exhibition in the Netherlands. This joint exhibition was held at the De Zonnebloem art gallery in The Hague. Maurits himself stayed in Siena to recuperate.
His work from this period (1923-1924) shows an enormous leap in quality. He created woodcuts such as Saint Francis and beautiful landscapes of the coast near Amalfi. He began to play with light and shadow in a way that was almost magical. He carved the smallest details out of the hard wood: the reflection of the water, the texture of the rocks, and the distant horizon.

The Marriage and a New Beginning (June 1924)

In June 1924, the time had finally come. After a period of hard work and writing many letters to his fiancée in Switzerland, Maurits and Jetta married on June 12, 1924, in Viareggio, Italy. The honeymoon took them via Genoa to Annecy. Eventually, the young couple traveled via Paris to Brussels to visit family. In mid-July, they also paid a visit to family in the Netherlands.
The young couple decided to settle permanently in Italy. After a period in Siena, they found a house in Rome, on a hill overlooking the city. This marks the end of Escher’s “searching” years. By the end of 1924, he was no longer the uncertain student from Haarlem. He was a married man, a recognized printmaker, and he had found the two most important ingredients for his art: the dramatic Italian perspective and the mathematical puzzle of Spanish tessellation.