Nothing is quite what it seems in the universe of Maurits Cornelis Escher (widely known as M.C. Escher). The Dutch artist, famed for his graphic prints featuring infinite staircases, twisted perspectives and self-replicating animals, was a master of illusion in more ways than one.
Escher's pictures aren’t simply puzzles designed to play tricks on the brain; they were born of a desire to stretch our powers of perception, to encourage us to cultivate a natural curiosity and playfulness about the world around us. According to New York gallerist Skot Foreman, the artist had a rare gift. “He combined the structure and analytics of the left brain with the artistic creativity of the right brain,” Foreman explains. “Somehow, he turned images into mind-bending universes that were able to stretch the boundaries of our imagination, urging us to rethink the realms of possibility within nature’s laws of order.”
But creating illusionistic illustrations was not Escher’s only talent. He was also a passionate diarist, recording his thoughts and frustrations in written form throughout his life. He often lamented that his pictures could never fully convey his cerebral imaginings. At the same time, he expressed impatience with those who couldn’t see beyond the surface appeal of his shape-shifting patterns. Escher was an artist who sought perfection and felt misunderstood by the mainstream art world.
“The most important thing about Escher is that he was always curious, always researching and exploring. Most people lose this quality as they get older, but Escher maintained a childlike enthusiasm for the world,” says Dutch filmmaker Robin Lutz, whose thoughtful feature-length film, M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity, marries documentary footage with animation and unfolds at an unhurried pace, allowing Escher’s witty and intelligent prose to gently guide us through his creative evolution.
Escher always carried a magnifying glass in his pocket to “enjoy the tiniest details” at his feet, be it a plant climbing a rock, a butterfly or a grasshopper. He had a real passion for travel and spent more than a decade in Rome with his wife, Jetta, and young family. It was there that he first played with multiple perspectives, sketching the city’s architecture at night to avoid the “excessive baroque frills” he deemed too distracting in the daylight. Another big development was sparked by a 1936 visit to the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain. Inspired by the Moorish tiles of the 14th-century landmark, Escher started to experiment with repeating patterns, or tessellations, creating his first woodcuts and lithographs of metamorphosing birds, lizards and fish interlocking and filling the entire surface of the paper in jigsaw fashion.
During and directly after World War II, Escher produced many of his most famous works, emotional reactions to a world plunged into chaos. This period marked the start of his fascination with impossible staircases, never-ending waterfalls and cyclical still lifes featuring figures and creatures seemingly caught in a loop, a paradox of entrapment and renewal.
Indeed, the concept of infinity was a major inspiration for him. It informs his fish-eye studies and curvilinear perspectives, which cram in so much dizzying detail it’s impossible to know where one thing ends and another begins. It’s no wonder, then, that Escher’s probing, mind-expanding prints have such enduring appeal.
Find original M.C. Escher art on 1stDibs.
Between Sky and Water - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Between Sky and Water, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1938 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different...
Color
Surrealist Lovers - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Surrealist Lovers, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1935 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On...
Color
Birds and Fishes - Facsimile Lithograph, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Birds and Fishes, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1943 Unsigned Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellum 45 x...
Color
The Waterfall - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) The Waterfall, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1935 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vel...
Color
NATURE - Flock of Birds - Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Flock of Birds, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1938 Unsigned Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellum 45 x 3...
Color
NATURE - Flight of birds - Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Flight of birds, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1938 Unsigned Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellum 45 x ...
Color
Metaphysics (Architecture in 4 Dimensions) - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Metaphysics, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1935 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellu...
Color
NATURE - Autumn and Carp - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Birds and Fishes, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1943 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On ...
Color
STILL LIFE - Reptiles - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Still life with reptiles, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1943 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be differ...
Color
The Impossible Castle - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) The Impossible Castle, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1935 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different...
Color
The Medieval Army - Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) The Medieval Army, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1938 Unsigned Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellum 45 ...
Color
NATURE - Intertwined Lizards - Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Intertwined Lizards, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1938 Unsigned Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellum 4...
Color
Reflecting Globe - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Reflecting globe, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1935 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On ...
Color
Ascendant and Descendant - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Ascendant and Descendant, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1938 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be differ...
Color
The Impossible Staircase - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) The Impossible Staircase, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1935 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be differ...
Color
Tugs on the Hudson
By Charles Frederick William Mielatz
Located in Middletown, NY
Drypoint etching with engraving printed in black ink on Japanese mulberry paper, 4 1/2 x 3 3/8 inches (113 x 84 mm), full margins. In superb condition. A beautiful New York City river...
Handmade Paper, Drypoint, Etching
$650
H 40 in W 30 in D 0.05 in
Original Spokane (WA.) Colorful Capital Fun Map vintage poster
Located in Spokane, WA
Original Spokane (Washington), The Colorful Capital of the Inland Empire vintage travel fun map. Printed in 1971, this seldom if ever found original map is archival linen backed an...
Lithograph
$3,000
H 13.63 in W 21.75 in
Still Night (spooky Brooklyn brownstones on 7th Ave off Flatbush Ave)
By Frederick Mershimer
Located in New Orleans, LA
In "Still Night", Frederick Mershimer depicts a row of brownstone houses on Seventh Avenue near Flatbush Avenue between Park and Stirling Places. Mershimer remembers that as he was ...
Mezzotint
$3,600
H 22 in W 33.75 in
'Cherry Blossoms at Dusk', Japanese color woodblock, Musashino College of Art
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'Morihiro Sato' (Japanese, born 1943), with artist chop mark, and dated 1985; titled, lower left, in English and Kanji 'Cherry Trees (Dusk)' with number and limitation, '3/55'. Paper dimensions: 24.25 x 35.5 inches A fresh and unfaded woodblock print showing a view of cherry tree boughs heavy with glowing blossoms before a vista of rolling hills with stylized Japanese pine beneath a luminous, golden sunset. Morihiro Sato graduated from Musashino College of Fine Art before studying under the printmaker Joichi Hoshi (1913-1979). Sato’s work focuses on the beauty of nature, particularly that of trees. Through the medium of woodblock with inclusion of metallic pigments, his delicately atmospheric prints evoke a sense of gentle sense of wonder. *With thanks to Ronin Gallery
Gold Leaf
Cathedral, Modern Lithograph by Andre Masson
By André Masson
Located in Long Island City, NY
Andre Masson, French (1896 - 1987) - Cathedral, Medium: Lithograph and Chine Colle, signed, numbered and dedicated in pencil, Edition: 7/25 HC, Image Size: 13 x 4 inches, Size: 1...
Lithograph
Restaurant in Mott Street
By Charles Frederick William Mielatz
Located in New Orleans, LA
The image depicts a restaurant on New York's Mott Street with ornamental iron work on the balconies. There are six figures in the scene in various stages of contrast. Mott Street is considered the unofficial Main Street of New York's Chinatown. Ella Fitzgerald sang it best: “And tell me what street compares with Mott Street in July? Sweet pushcarts gently gliding by.” CFW Mielatz was an early influence on the drypoints and etchings of Martin Lewis. This piece was created in 1906 and it is signed in pencil. It is part of the collection of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art C.F.W. Mielatz American, 1860-1919 Born in Bredding, Germany in 1864, Mielatz emigrated to the United States as a young boy and studied at the Chicago School of Design. Mostly self-taught, his first prints were large New England landscapes reminiscent of the painter-etcher school of American Art. Around 1890 he started to produce prints of New York City and by the time of his death, the number totaled over ninety images. He was a master technician in the field of etching, reworking many of his plates to get the exact feeling he was seeking. Mielatz was a member of the New York Etching...
Drypoint, Etching
$90
H 5 in W 3.25 in
Christmas Pine Cones, festive printed image has the feel of a watercolor wash.
By Frederick Mershimer
Located in New Orleans, LA
This Holiday wreath adorns the door of a Brooklyn Mansion Frederick Mershimer (American, b. 1958) Moody, mysterious, majestic – these are some of the ways to describe the mezzotint...
Mezzotint
$850
H 41 in W 27 in D 0.3 in
Ride the Wild Surf (1964) Original One Sheet Movie Poster – Waimea Bay, Hawaii
Located in Spokane, WA
Original 1964 Ride the Wild Surf one-sheet movie poster filmed at Waimea Bay, Hawaii. Authentic vintage surf film poster. Collector grade. Experience the raw power of Hawaii’s legen...
Offset
$2,650
H 23.25 in W 18.5 in D 1.5 in
Arnold Ronnebeck Lithograph of Gregory Point, Colorado, 1930s Modernist Print
By Arnold Rönnebeck
Located in Denver, CO
This original 1930s lithograph by renowned modernist artist Arnold Ronnebeck (1885–1947) captures a historic home at Gregory Point, near Central City, Colorado. Part of a limited edi...
Lithograph, Paper
Antique view of Rome with an aqueduct spanning the Tiber
By Richard Earlom
Located in Middletown, NY
London: Boydell, 1810. Aquatint with engraving printed in sepia on cream wove paper with a partial 1805 watermark, 6 x 9 1/2 (153 x 242 mm); sheet 10 3/8 x 14 1/8 inches (264 x 360 ...
Handmade Paper, Etching, Aquatint
Coin de Rue Dans Soho
By Jean-Emile Laboureur
Located in New York, NY
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1947), Coin de Rue Dans Soho, woodcut, 1909, signed in pencil lower left and numbered (15/15) [also initials in the plate]. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 64...
Woodcut
$1,000
H 18.75 in W 27.75 in
Evening Moon, color etching renowned printmaker Signed/N, ex Denver Art Museum
Located in New York, NY
Kathan Brown Evening Moon, 1962 Color etching on wove paper Hand signed, titled, dated and numbered 30/100 by Kathan Brown on the front 18 3/4 × 27 3/4 inches De-accessioned from the...
Etching
NATURE - Flight of birds - Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Flight of birds, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1938 Unsigned Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellum 45 x ...
Color
NATURE - Flight of birds - Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Flight of birds, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1938 Unsigned Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellum 45 x ...
Color
The Waterfall - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) The Waterfall, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1935 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vel...
Color
NATURE - Flight of birds - Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Flight of birds, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1938 Unsigned Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellum 45 x ...
Color
NATURE - Flock of Birds - Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Flock of Birds, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1938 Unsigned Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellum 45 x 3...
Color
NATURE - Autumn and Carp - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Birds and Fishes, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1943 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On ...
Color
Birds and Fishes - Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Birds and Fishes, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1943 Unsigned Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellum 45 x...
Color
STILL LIFE - Reptiles - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Still life with reptiles, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1943 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be differ...
Color
Metaphysics - Signed Facsimile, Ltd /450
By M.C. Escher
Located in Paris, IDF
M.C. ESCHER (1898-1972) Metaphysics, 2008 Facsimile after the original woodcut from 1935 Signed in the plate Numbered / 450 copies (the number you can see can be different) On vellu...
Color
Up And Down - Lithograph by M.C. Escher - 1947
By M.C. Escher
Located in Roma, IT
Hand Signed. Printed in black ink, and part of a limited edition thought to be of 400 specimen. Image Dimensions : 51 x 20 cm Reference: Bool n. 352 Locher 146. Very good conditio...
Lithograph
Sold
H 24 in W 25.25 in D 2 in
M. C. Escher Plane Filling Mosaic II Lithograph Wove Paper Signed numbered 1957
By M.C. Escher
Located in Portland, OR
Plane Filling/Mosaic II (1957) by M. C. Escher. In excellent condition, whilst it is housed in the original frame and buckram rabbet the image has been professionally re-housed with ...
Lithograph
Mosaic II - Lithograph by M.C. Escher - 1957
By M.C. Escher
Located in Roma, IT
Hand signed and numbered. Edition of 56 prints. Rare and in excellent conditions. References: Cat. Locher n.422
Lithograph