Verbum

14 June 1939 – 27 May 1940

The deaths of his father and mother

On 14 June 1939 Escher’s father, George Arnold, died in The Hague at the age of 96; on 27 May 1940 his mother, Sara Gleichman, died too. Brussels was by then occupied by Nazi Germany and Escher could not attend his mother’s funeral; for the rest of the year he settled her financial affairs and carried out a commission from Leiden’s town hall to decorate the building.

January 1941

Return to the Netherlands: Baarn

Because of the war the Eschers returned to the Netherlands in January 1941; from 20 February they lived in Baarn, and in 1955 moved to a new house in the same town. Most of Escher’s best-known works date from these years: the sometimes cloudy, cold and wet Dutch weather allowed him to focus intently on his work.

1 February 1944 – 1946

The death of his teacher Mesquita

On 1 February 1944 the Nazis arrested Samuel de Mesquita, who was of Jewish origin, with his family and sent them to Auschwitz; almost at once after arrival — presumably on 11 February — he and his wife were killed in the gas chamber. Escher helped to send his teacher’s works to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, keeping for himself a single sketch bearing the print of a German boot, and in 1946 organised a memorial exhibition there.