Unseen MC Escher sketch goes on public display for first time

A rare, previously unknown work by the Dutch graphic artist MC Escher has gone on display in The Hague after being acquired by the Escher Museum from the artist’s family.

The sketch of Montecelio, about 12 miles outside Rome, shows the town’s buildings cluttering the hillside, topped by the ruins of a Roman fort dating from 998.

Unusually for Escher, the work is a composition on paper rather than a woodcut or lithograph, but it reflects the themes of geometry and architecture that characterise his famous tessellations and optical illusions. The Japanese influence on Escher’s art is evident in the depiction of the mountains and trees.

“We are grateful to the family for offering the work to the museum,” said curator Micky Piller. “Had it gone to auction we would have had no chance of buying it.

“It’s very rare for a work like this to emerge so long after the artist’s death. It contains some technical similarities to Escher’s other works, as well as elements that recur in his later work, so it’s an important discovery.”

The sketch dates from March 1924, when Escher visited Rome while preparing for his wedding. It took extensive research by Piller to track down the location of the untitled work.

“The family didn’t know where it was,” she said. “When Escher visited Italy he would go for walks and look for places to draw. But he didn’t go walking in 1923 and there’s no mention of this place in his diaries, which is unlike him.”

Born in Leeuwarden in 1898, Escher started out as a landscape artist, but during his travels in Italy he became more interested in architecture, symmetry and mathematical design. His best known works, such as Waterfall and Relativity, date from the late 1930s onwards, after he left Italy. He died in 1972.

Montecelio is on display in the Escher Museum, The Hague, until November.