Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972)

WEDNESDAY, 26 MAY 1993 EVENING SESSION, AT 7.00 P.M. PRECISELY (Lots 505-696) MARQUETRY PANELS DESIGNED BY MAURITS CORNELIS ESCHER The following designs for decorations in wood on doors by Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) are dated to February 1954 and were commissioned by the Dienst Publieke Werken of the City of Amsterdam. After these designs, two sets of three inlaid wooden doors were executed and placed, in reverse to each other to opposite walls, in the director's room of the new building of the Plaatselijke Telefoondienst Amsterdam at the Pieter de Hoochstraat 55 in Amsterdam, which was opened early 1955. In 1967, due to a renovation of the room, all six doors were painted over in white. In 1982 two of the doors were removed to make room for two bookcases. Their present whereabouts are unknown. In May 1986 the remaining four doors were removed from the room, caused by a further renovation. During research done in conjunction with the previous sale of the drawings in these Rooms on 21 May 1987, parts of these four doors, with the complete inlaid designs, were traced in a private collection in Amsterdam and will be offered for this sale in the following lot. The fourth drawing from this set, a basic outline of the wall decoration, included in the 1987 sale as lot 272, was sold seperately from these three drawings, and is now in an American private Collection. 1954 was an important year for the spreading of Escher's work. In September of that year an exhibition of his work was held in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Also in the U.S.A. interest in Escher's work was already growing; in October-November 1954 his first one-man exhibition in the U.S.A. was organised very successfully in the Whyte Gallery in Washington. The combination of birds and fish (air and water) can be found frequently in Escher's work. Occurring already in his prints of 1938 'Air and Water' I and II (F.H. Bool, J.L. Locher and others: Leven en Werk van M.C. Escher, Amsterdam, 1984, nrs. 306 and 308), this theme reappears in a design for a tapestry of 1949 (Bool, op.cit., ill. p. 75). The birds and fish in the present designs are comparable with those in the lino-cut Bool 376, which is dated 1951 on the basis of Escher's administration. Comparable birds can also be traced in the New Year's Wish for 1954 (Bool 383). Escher is known to have made several designs for decorations in -mostly public- buildings in Amsterdam, The Hague, Eindhoven and Baarn. Original designs by Escher very rarely appear on the market.

细节

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972)

Vogels (Birds); Vogels en Vissen (Birds and Fish); and Vissen (Fish), three designs for wall decorations

signed with monogram and dated lower right MCE II '54, pencil, black and grey wash, on cream wove paper, inscribed lower left in pen and black ink RECHTER WAND, LINKER DEUR, SCHAAL 1:3.; RECHTER WAND, MIDDEN DEUR. SCHAAL 1:3.; and RECHTER WAND, RECHTER DEUR. SCHAAL 1:3. respectively, unframed
46.4 x 43.8 cm. each (3)

来源

Dienst Publieke Werken, Amsterdam
Anon. Sale, Amsterdam; Christie's, Amsterdam, 21 May 1987, lots 273-275
Private Collection, on loan to the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, 1987-1993

拍品专文

See illustrations