Maurits Cornelis Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972)

Day and Night, 1938, Color Woodcut

This print is evidence of a turning point in Escher's work. Before 1937 he worked almost exclusively with Italian landscape, but because of the steadily worsening conditions in Italy before World War II, he and his family finally left Rome in 1936. This piece shows a clear break from his past concentration on reality towards more imaginary realms

It was during this time that he began working with the idea of metamorphosis; that is,subtle shifts in a picture so that one object becomes another through a slow change in shape. These experiments led to one of Escher's best loved prints, Day and Night. In this piece the metamorphosis occurs not only from left to right, but top to bottom as well.

Loaned by Robert and Katherine Aldrich.