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National Gallery of Art - THE COLLECTION
image of Balcony
M.C. Escher (artist)
Dutch, 1898 - 1972
Balcony, 1945
lithograph
image: 29.6 x 23.5 cm (11 5/8 x 9 1/4 in.) sheet: 38.5 x 31.9 cm (15 3/16 x 12 9/16 in.)
Cornelius Van S. Roosevelt Collection
All M.C. Escher works © Cordon Art-Baarn-the Netherlands. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
1974.28.19
From the Tour: M.C. Escher — Life and Work
Object 16 of 24

Escher wrote that this print "gives the illusion of a town, of house blocks with the sun shining on them. But again it's a fiction, for my paper remains flat. In a spirit of deriding my vain efforts and trying to break up the paper's flatness, I pretend to give it a blow with my fist at the back, but once again it's no good: the paper remains flat, and I have only created the illusion of an illusion. However, the consequence of my blow is that the balcony in the middle is about four times enlarged in comparison with the bordering objects."

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