In a way, MC Escher � who died 35 years ago come March 27, 2007 � just happened to come along at the right time. When his mesmerising work first became globally known in the 1960s it found admirers it in a generation of young people who, if not actually eyewitness to such constructions in their own minds thanks to hallucinogenic drugs, discovered a contrary art form almost made for them. Stirred by rebelliousness, Alice had made another trip through the looking glass, and this was what she found.

On the other hand, Escher was no hippie. If occasionally playful, he was sobre, conservative, studious, neat, pragmatic, scientific, hard-working, a devoted family man and, because the fascists had made his own life difficult, accepting of the need for war. (Mussolini was at his first child's christening, but that had to do with local celebrity, not ideology.)

If there was a contradiction in his art, he only saw it in the fact that it was mathemeticians and physicists who recognised his gift, not other artists. In terms of his tesselations, the "periodic" drawings in which interlocked figures recede endlessly into the distance, he agonised at being art's sole innovator.

"I wander totally alone around the garden of periodic drawings," he wrote in 1958. "However satisfying it may be to possess one's own domain, loneliness is not as enjoyable as one might expect ... But periodic drawings are not merely a nervous tic, a habit, or a hobby. They are not subjective; they are objective. And I cannot accept, with the best will in the world, that something so obvious and ready to hand as the giving of recognisable form, meaning, function and purpose to figures that fill each other out, should never have come into the head of any other man but me."

This is an illustrated Google Earth biography of the beloved Dutch graphics master, but although Escher travelled widely I couldn't find many addresses, so in many cases I've settled for "artistic" views of the places he visited. Anyone who knows the specifics is welcome to speak up.

All works by MC Escher are copyrighted by Cordon Art of Baarn, the Netherlands. Excellent background information and/or image reproductions can be found at the official Escher website as well as here, here and here.

The National Gallery of Canada has not only terrific images from its large collection of Escher works and an overview of his techniques, but a biography based on the recollections of Escher's eldest son, who donated the prints.

JAN20-07 EDIT: Placemarks in Italy and Belgium have been moved thanks to information provided by bebop and Noisette. Many thanks to them both.
AUG23-07 EDIT: A fresh round of thanks to filofax2000 for pinpointing the exact location of Escher's home in Uccle, Belgium, where apparently we have a Google Earth Community member embedded right in the house! The placemark has been shifted in this edited version and some icons tidied up.