Siena

1919–1922

The Haarlem school and his teacher Mesquita

In 1919 Escher entered the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts, where he learned drawing and woodcut; he soon gave up architecture for decorative arts and graduated in 1922. A huge influence on him was his teacher, the artist Samuel de Mesquita, with whom he remained friends until 1944; he chose the career of an engraver rather than an oil painter quite deliberately — according to the scholar Hans Locher, he was drawn by the possibility of making many impressions.

1921

First journey abroad: Italy and the Riviera

In 1921 Escher travelled abroad for the first time, with his family, to northern Italy and the French Riviera: Italian Renaissance art made a very strong impression on him, he drew olive trees and began experiments with spheres and mirrors. His engravings illustrated his friend Ad van Stolk’s humorous booklet “Flor de Pascua”; the first work to sell in large numbers was “St Francis Preaching to the Birds”.

April – June 1922

Italy in the spring of 1922: San Gimignano and Siena

In April 1922 Escher left for Italy with two friends — by legend his mother saw him off with the words “My son, don’t smoke too much”. The friends soon turned back from Florence, but he went on to San Gimignano, drew Volterra and Siena, saw the fluorescent sea for the first time, spent the whole spring outside the city drawing landscapes, plants and insects, visited Assisi, Ravenna, Venice, Padua and Milan, and in June returned to Oosterbeek, intending to move to Italy for good.

September 1922

Spain and the Alhambra: the Moorish pattern

In September 1922 Escher sailed to Spain — Barcelona, Madrid, a bullfight, then Granada, where he studied the Moorish style at the Alhambra. The intricate geometric ornaments of the Alhambra — interlocking repetitive patterns in coloured tiles and carved into walls — woke his interest in the mathematics of tessellation and left a lasting mark on his work.

March 1923 – 12 May 1924

Jetta Umiker: from Ravello to the wedding

In March 1923 in Ravello Escher first met Jetta (Giulietta) Umiker, the daughter of a Swiss industrialist who until 1917 had managed two textile factories at Nakhabino near Moscow; he declared himself at the last moment, when her family was already leaving for Switzerland. They became engaged and married on 12 May 1924 in Viareggio; on their honeymoon — via Genoa, Annecy, Paris and Brussels — the couple travelled to Oosterbeek, and then returned to live in Italy.

12 June 1924

Married: Jetta Umiker