Swans

1956

M.C. Escher

Associated Names
M.C. Escher

Artist, Dutch, 1898 - 1972

This print shows a horizontal figure-eight shape made up of both light and dark birds, arranged in a flowing, wave-like pattern. The birds appear to be thin, as if they were made of wood or paper, and on the left and right curves of the figure-eight shape we see them from the side. The effect is a waving, continuous line where closest to us are the fronts of the birds, which are light and face the right, and behind that are the backs of the birds, which are dark and face the left. In the center, where the two strands overlap, the birds fit together like puzzle pieces. The background is made of gray crosshatched lines inside of an off-white border.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    wood engraving on Japanese paper

  • Credit Line

    Cornelius Van S. Roosevelt Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 30.48 × 40.01 cm (12 × 15 3/4 in.)
    image: 19.84 × 31.75 cm (7 13/16 × 12 1/2 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1974.28.61

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Bool 1981, no. 408

  • Copyright

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

Artwork history & notes

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, Doris. Visions of Symmetry: Notebooks, Periodic Drawings, and Related Work of M. C. Escher. New York, 1990: illustrated page 310.

Inscriptions

lower left in graphite: M. C. Escher; lower right in graphite: eigendruck; upper right in block: II-'56 MCE [monogram]; lower right margin in graphite, by later hand: "White and Black Swans" wood engraving $ [undeciphered] [$ and undeciphered text are erased]

Wikidata ID

Q65574345

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