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M.C. Escher Biography

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“I should like to end this description of the stars with the Pleiades, which I once saw rising up out of the sea. When and where in Holland is the atmosphere ever so free from dust and mist that you can see the stars clearly right down to the horizon? One evening I saw a point of light appearing on the horizon, followed a moment later by another one. I thought they were the lights of a ship sailing by in the distance. But then a third light appeared, and a fourth, and finally there were seven altogether; it was then that I recognised the Pleiades, making for the heavens in full sail, like a ghost ship.”

StarsPleiades
Book:Leven en werk van M.C. Escher : het levensverhaal van de graficus : met een volledig geïllustreerde catalogus van zijn werk
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“Baarn, 5 July 1964: 'On the train to Utrecht I was suddenly overwhelmed and enormously moved by a sky full of clouds at different levels. I experienced a sense of space and three-dimensionality such as I'd not experienced for a long time. It's possible to suddenly become aware of these things, even in an overpopulated country like Holland. Provided that you are looking up, you'll suddenly see that timeless and unbounded eternity. Do you think it silly, or can you imagine what I mean?”

SkyInfinity
Book:Leven en werk van M.C. Escher : het levensverhaal van de graficus : met een volledig geïllustreerde catalogus van zijn werk
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“I was peculiarly moved by the angelic life growing on the ground. I have no idea what sorts of flowers grow there in profusion -- I don’t know their names. But I was so moved that I sat down, trying to flatten as few grasses and plants as possible with my clumsy backside... This brought my head quite close to the silent, joyful, exuberant, celestial children of heaven. They are so humble, so quiet, and they do not mind if you observe them, if you think they are beautiful... Nor do they mind if you don’t look at all -- they just stand there together all by themselves in the huge stretch of woods and grow and bloom just the same, peacefully, joyfully, and silently. I am absolutely sure that they know nothing of the swinish and filthy behaviour of people in their dirty stinking houses -- they know only about heaven.”

HeavenSilenceFlowers
Book:M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work. With a Fully Illustrated Catalogue
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