Reptiles, lithograph, 1943.

“The life cycle of a caiman. Amidst all kinds of objects lies an open drawing notebook in which one drawing can be seen: a mosaic of reptilian figures in three contrasting shades. One of them is apparently tired of lying flat and frozen in the middle of his kind. So it sticks a plastic paw over the edge of the notebook, rips itself away further and goes into free life. It climbs onto the back of a zoology book and laboriously works its way up the slippery slope of a sign triangle to the pinnacle of its existence. Take a breather, tired but satisfied and then downhill again, via an ashtray back to the plain, the flat drawing paper, where it obediently rejoins its former friends and resumes its function as a surface dividing element.” ~ M.C. Escher, Grafiek en Tekeningen.