That pesky poser of pictorial paradoxes and teasing trickster of tanglesome tessellations, Maurits Cornelis Escher was born in Northern Holland. He went to school at Arnhem where his teacher got him so interested in printmaking that it inspired his first exciting adventures and explorations in the art of the lino cut (but made a right mess of his parents' kitchen floor). He went on to study architecture but a helpful artist-tutor quickly spotted the lad's talent for drawing and told him 'Stuff buildings, go graphic'.
In 1923, with his mum's inestimably helpful career tip, 'Son, don't smoke too much!' still ringing in his ears, Maurice set off for Italy where he soon fell in love with the landscape, architecture, insects and arms (well, that's what he said) of the Swiss girl he eventually married.
During the 1920s he had considerable artistic success, a house built near Rome and became so well known that his son's christening was attended by Mussolini (poor kid). In the 1930s he did a deal with a shipping company who gave him free travel in return for his drawings of their ships - but fortunately not the lifeboat location plans... although this was in his pre-1937 'realism' period.
Being repelled by the morally repugnant and drawn to the visually-perplexing, he left Italy's fascist furore and went to live in Switzerland where he began working in the studio and drawing entirely on his infinite and ingenious imagination. He eventually returned to Holland where he spent the rest of his days, finally drawing the never-ending escalator of mortality then boarding it for all time.
Click for Christmas
