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Maurits Cornelis, or "Mauk" as he came to be nicknamed, was born in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. He was the youngest son of civil engineer George Arnold Escher and his second wife, Sara Gleichman. He was a sickly child, and was placed in a special school at the age of seven and failed the second grade. In 1903, the family moved to Arnhem where he took carpentry and piano lessons until he was thirteen years old.

From 1903 until 1918 he attended primary and secondary school. Though he excelled at drawing, his grades were generally poor. In 1919, Escher attended the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. He briefly studied architecture, but failed a number of subjects (partly due to a persistent skin infection) and switched to decorative arts. Here he studied under Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, with whom he would remain friends for years. In 1922 Escher left the school, having gained experience in drawing and making woodcuts.

In 1922, an important year in his life, Escher traveled through Italy (Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra, Siena) and Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Granada). He was impressed by the Italian countryside and by the Alhambra, a fourteenth-century Moorish castle in Granada, Spain. He came back to Italy regularly in the following years. In Italy he met Jetta Umiker, whom he married in 1924. The young couple settled down in Rome and stayed there until 1935, when the political climate under Mussolini became unbearable. Their son, Giorgio Arnaldo Escher, named after his grandfather, was born in Rome. The family next moved to Château-d'Œx, Switzerland where they remained for two years.

Escher, who had been very fond of and inspired by the landscapes in Italy, was decidedly unhappy in Switzerland, so in 1937, the family moved again, to Ukkel, a small town near Brussels, Belgium. World War II forced them to move in January 1941, this time to Baarn, the Netherlands, where Escher lived until 1970. Most of Escher's better-known pictures date from this period. The sometimes cloudy, cold, wet weather of the Netherlands allowed him to focus intently on his works, and only during 1962, when he underwent surgery, was there a time when no new images were created.

Escher moved to the Rosa-Spier house in Laren in 1970, a retirement home for artists where he had his own studio. He died at the home on 27 March 1972, at 73 years of age.]]> male Leeuwarden 1901/12/13 1972/03/27 276287 3822858641 9783822858646 3 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255663180m/276287.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/276287.M_C_Escher_The_Graphic_Work 4.22 134 306401 4.27 444 28 276285 0810981130 9780810981133 7 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173341851m/276285.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/276285.M_C_Escher_Life_and_Complete_Graphic_Work 4.32 108 306401 4.27 444 28 475056 4.34 118 9 276288 0810922681 9780810922686 3 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223676290m/276288.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/276288.M_C_Escher_29_Master_prints 4.43 77 306401 4.27 444 28 558549 0810924145 9780810924147 2 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175793014m/558549.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/558549.Escher_on_Escher_Exploring_the_Infinite 4.06 32 306401 4.27 444 28 558550 0876548192 9780876548196 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175793015m/558550.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/558550.The_Pop_Up_Book_of_M_C_Escher 3.44 9 306401 4.27 444 28 276286 0810980592 9780810980594 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/276286.The_Infinite_World_of_M_C_Escher 4.60 5 306401 4.27 444 28 6766998 1 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6766998-the-world-of-m-c-escher-new-concise-nal-edition 4.50 2 306401 4.27 444 28 475056 4.34 118 9 1443900 0752900382 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1443900.M_C_Escher_Mini_Masterpieces 4.00 2 306401 4.27 444 28 865472 0810908808 9780810908802 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179010190m/865472.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/865472.The_M_C_Escher_Jigsaw_Puzzle_Book 4.00 2 306401 4.27 444 28 2239118 0876542089 9780876542088 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2239118.M_C_Escher_Kaleidocycles 5.00 1 306401 4.27 444 28