MAURITS CORNELIS ESCHER (1898-1972)
Lot 55

MAURITS CORNELIS ESCHER (1898-1972)

M.C. Escher: Regelmatige Vlakverdeeling (Regular Division of the Plane)

Closed18 September 2019

Price Realised

GBP 11,250

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MAURITS CORNELIS ESCHER (1898-1972)
M.C. Escher: Regelmatige Vlakverdeeling (Regular Division of the Plane)
the complete book including seven wood engravings and an additional suite of six printed in red, 1958, on wove paper, one print on the frontispiece, the others hors-texte, dedicated Voor George en Milie/v.d.S./13-XII-'58 in ink on the front fly-leaf, with title, text by the artist, en-texte illustrations and justification, the justification with the inscription auteurs-exemplaar/ L.L. in ink, an author's copy aside from the edition of 175, published by Stichting De Roos, Utrecht, the full sheets, bound (as issued), the additional suite loose in a cloth strap on the inside back-cover (as issued), all within the original, paper-covered boards with the artist's bird design in red, with cloth-spine and fore-edges, in very good condition (book)
345 x 260 mm. (overall)

Johan George Escher (1894-1969), Bentveld; a gift from the artist.
Then by descent to the present owner.

Specialist note

`A graphic artist has something of the troubadour within him. He sings and repeats the same song in each print he creates from the same woodblock, copperplate or lithographic stone.'

For the frontispiece with the opening line of his treatise Regular Division of the Plane, Escher used the woodcut Self-Portrait in a Spherical Mirror, in the manner of a medieval manuscript, to decorate the elaborate red G of 'graficus'. The book is Escher's most elaborate exposition of his interest in tessellation, illustrated with his own wood engravings.

In the dedication to his eldest brother Johan George Escher and his wife Emelie on the fly leaf, Escher signs off with the cryptic initials ‘v.d. S’. Pronounced as ‘van de Es’, this ubiquitous Netherlandish surname is comparable to 'Smith' in the English-speaking world. With this everyman nom de plume, an insider joke known only to his family, Escher self-deprecatingly mocks his growing reputation.