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Open 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Visit
Open today 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Admission is always free

6th and Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20565

Sculpture Garden Extended Hours

Open late until 8:00 p.m. on select nights
Through September 5
Exhibitions & Events
America’s 250th

Celebrating American art and artists
Art & Artists
Open Call

Artists Reimagining the Collection
Meet the 50 makers selected from more than 1,600 submissions

Eight Heads

1922

M.C. Escher

Associated Names

M.C. Escher

Artist, Dutch, 1898 - 1972

The print displays a complex pattern of intersecting human profiles, fitting seamlessly together like puzzle pieces. The design features faces of men and women wearing accessories such as top hats and elaborate hairstyles. Some of the profiles are upside-down, and some face the left while others face the right. Most of the faces have light skin and details in black, but two of them appear to have dark skin with details in white. The faces are each repeated several times. The background of the print is off-white paper.

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Artwork overview

Medium

woodcut, block printed four times
Credit Line

Cornelius Van S. Roosevelt Collection
Dimensions

image: 32.5 x 34 cm (12 13/16 x 13 3/8 in.)
sheet: 45.7 x 44.8 cm (18 x 17 5/8 in.)
Accession Number

1973.65.2
Catalogue Raisonné

Bool 1981, no. 90
Copyright

All M.C. Escher works © Cordon Art-Baarn-the Netherlands. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1974

NGA Recent Acquisitions 1974, no. 137 (with incorrect accession number).

1984

"Escher: Pattern & Paradox", Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, FL, 1984.

1997

M.C. Escher: A Centennial Tribute, National Gallery of Art, Washington; San Diego Museum of Art; The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 1997-1999.

2000

"M.C. Escher", Knoxville Museum of Art, 2000.

2015

The Worlds of M.C. Escher: Nature, Science, and Imagination, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 2015.

Bibliography

1981

Bool, F.H. et al. M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1981; English-language edition, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1982.

1990

Schattschneider 1990, p.8.

Inscriptions

lower left, in pencil: MCEscher 1922; lower right, in pencil: eigen druk

Wikidata ID

Q65574011

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