Maurits Cornelis Escher

Woodcut printed in colors, 1967-68, a proof impression of the 5th and 6th segments of the final composition, signed in pencil, dated 1967 and inscribed 'eigendruk'

In good condition apart from a few very small fox marks. There is an inconspicuous vertical crease extending across the image about 10 inches from the right edge. There are a few touched in scrapes in the perimeter of the image.
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On three sheets of joined, tissue thin, laid paper.

Metamorphosis III, one of M.C. Escher's final prints, is a concentrated summary of the artist's innovative and intellectual approach to printmaking. In its evolving, tessellated patterns one sees evidence of his fascination with both the 'regular division of the plane', a series of unusually shaped interlocking patterns, and, obviously, metamorphosis. Technically and conceptually it is a masterwork - the finesse of its execution contrasting its sprawling composition.              

The woodcut is the last of three progressive prints: Escher's first attempt at this format, Metamorphosis I, was executed thirty years earlier but he was displeased with the result and consequently never exhibited the print. Metamorphosis II overcame some of the problems Escher felt hindered the earlier work. This second work is completely cyclical, starting and ending in the same pattern, and features some of the interlocking designs of the present work.

In 1967, Escher was commissioned to provide designs for a mural in a post office in The Hague. A copy of Metamorphosis II had hung in the Dutch Postal Service boardroom where it caught the eye of the Postal Service director. Initially, it had been decided that the mural would replicate the earlier print exactly, only on a much larger scale. This proved unsatisfactory due to basic differences between the dimensions of the space and the dimensions of the print. Escher's solution, and challenge, was to insert new, elongating sections into the earlier work. The six designs chosen were alterations of earlier, interlocking drawings and were adopted to fit into the existing scheme. It was Escher's choice to submit the design in the form of a print, not drawing; a choice which allowed him the benefit of selling impressions to collectors. The final composition features more explicitly Escher's brilliant synthesis of the seemingly irreconcilable virtues of pattern and evolution. The present work features several of the additions exclusive to Metamorphosis III in an evolving pattern of horses, fish, birds, and geometric figures.