After M. C. Escher, Puddle

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was a Dutch printmaker, known for woodcuts and lithographs of impossible spaces, tessellations and infinity. He cut ‘Puddle’ in February 1952 and printed it from three blocks in black, green and brown.

A rutted woodland track fills the picture, marked with tyre treads, footprints and bicycle tracks. At its centre a puddle reflects pine trees and a full moon in a pale evening sky. Turned upside down, the reflection becomes a forest.

A reproduction, enlarged from the original block and printed in black and blue-grey. Escher’s ‘MCE’ monogram and the date ‘II-’52’ appear at upper left, as on the woodcut. Mounted in taupe with a cream bevel, in a slim silvered metal frame. The backboard carries the gold label of Blackman Harvey, 29-39 Earlham Street, Cambridge Circus, London. The label’s ‘01-’ telephone code dates the framing to before 1990.