There’s an M.C. Escher museum in The Hague, and it’s awesome!

Dave has been a fan of the works of Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher since college, when Escher paintings were sold as dorm room posters and many people displayed them in their rooms. 

Therefore, we were delighted to discover that there was a museum devoted entirely to M.C. Escher’s life and work a few blocks from our apartment in The Hague. The museum lived up to its potential and was well worth our visit.

Although Dave had previously seen many of the works on display, he knew almost nothing about Escher himself. This museum provided that background. The information presented at the museum closely parallels the information on the Wikipedia page devoted to Escher, which is worth reading. (It’s concise and informative, and not too long.)

A few key takeaways:

Although he excelled in drawing, he received poor grades in school. He failed second grade.

He first attended the Technical College in Delft, then switched to the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. He initially studied architecture, but after receiving poor grades, he switched to decorative arts.

He traveled extensively after college, visiting many cities in Italy and Spain. The influences of these places, especially their architecture, can be easily seen in his works. He lived in Italy until life under Mussolini became unacceptable, moved to Switzerland, and finally returned to the Netherlands.

In his early years, Escher sketched landscapes and nature. Birds, fish, reptiles, and insects would later feature prominently in his works.

While Escher never considered himself a mathematician, mathematics and geometry figured heavily in his works. His work focused heavily on creating optical illusions – scenes that would be impossible in real life.

Some of Escher’s works involve tessellation, a technique that employs repetitive, interlocking, oddly-shaped tiles or designs.

In this painting, Escher has removed the boundary between the objects in his room and what he sees beyond his window.

The Escher museum is housed in a building that was once owned by Queen Emma and used as her winter palace. She had it extensively remodeled to make it more regal, including adding the staircase below. The museum today includes the history of the museum and how the various rooms were used during her time. In 1990, the royal family sold the building to the municipality of The Hague on the condition that it would only be used for cultural activities.

The museum had a couple of rooms that contained other works of optical illusion art that were not by Escher but could easily have been inspired by him.

We highly recommend visiting the Escher Museum if you are ever in or near The Hague.