Escher Museum

Brief information

The Escher Museum occupies an 18th-century palace on Lange Voorhout: the artist's works are shown not in a neutral exhibition building, but in a former royal residence. This immediately changes the way the place is read: strict museum logic is superimposed on a building that was once the living space of Queen Emma.

The exhibition is arranged by floor. The first floor leads to the early works, lithographs, and the first geometric subjects. The second brings together the best-known works, sketches for them, and a documentary film. The third floor is important precisely because of the contrast: there are no works by Escher there; it is given over to entertainment purposes. As a result, the museum is read not only through the artist, but also through the way the palace has been adapted for different types of experience.

What to notice first

It makes sense to compare the three levels of the building. The first floor shows the beginning of the method: early works, experiments with lithography, and the transition to geometric subjects. What matters here is not a particular date, but the fact that technique and geometry appear as the basis of Escher's future recognizable language.

On the second floor, the finished well-known works can be compared with sketches: the source text directly links them within a single exhibition, so attention shifts from the result to the process. The documentary film adds another way of reading the artist, not through a wall of prints but through a story about him. The third floor should be kept in mind as the boundary of the collection: the absence of Escher's works there shows that the museum uses the palace more broadly than simply as a shell for graphic art.