Metamorphosis II

1939/1940

M.C. Escher

Artist, Dutch, 1898 - 1972

Twelve sections of interlocking patterns in black, olive green, and burnt orange fill this very long and narrow horizontal color woodcut, which is printed on cream-white paper. On either end of the print are gray sections with intersecting lines, and the next section in on each side is a black and white checkerboard. Moving from left to right after the first checkerboard: the next section has stylized black and white flower blossoms on an olive-green background. Next are hexagons in shades of olive green and black, followed by black birds that merge into white fish. The fish blend into black, white, and orange cubes facing our right. The cubes give way to five chess pieces on an olive-green and white checkered surface. The image is outlined with a thin black border, leaving a narrow margin on all sides. The artist inscribed “MCE” in the lower left of the block, and “XI '39-III '40” in the lower right. He signed “MC Escher, eigendruk” in pencil below the printed image in the lower left.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut in black, olive and ochre, printed from twenty blocks on three combined sheets

  • Credit Line

    Cornelius Van S. Roosevelt Collection

  • Dimensions

    image: 19.05 × 387.99 cm (7 1/2 × 152 3/4 in.)
    sheet: 28.58 × 397.83 cm (11 1/4 × 156 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1982.90.5

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Bool 1981, no. 320


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.

Inscriptions

lower left, in block: MCE; lower right, in block: XI '39-III '40; lower left, in pencil, MC Escher, eigendruk

Wikidata ID

Q74038766


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