Escher selfie

The excellent Escher exhibition in the Dulwich Picture Gallery encouraged all attendees to take a selfie, to emulate this. My hand is both smaller and the globe is larger than Escher's, and not as steady (sorry about the blur).

The gallery opened late for a special showing and there was hardly anyone there, which was fantastic as Escher's pictures demand a close-up look to see all the tiny details. If you can, book up the next late on 12 December. I'm going to revisit a few times, thanks to an early Christmas present from Mum and Dad – it's high time that I become a Friend of the gallery.

Escher's drawings are so intricate and precise. The continuous yet gradual thick and thin lines in the woodcuts are wonders to behold. I particularly enjoyed seeing his "workings" for the tessellation images (the indentation of the pencil marks and his notation) and the sketches for the printed landscapes. He crafted for pleasure and not for money, as his parents and his wife's parents were wealthy. All the prints were printed by him and he typically printed around 50 of each image. The most he printed of any individual print was 600: Day and Night. He tried to put people off buying it by raising the price, but the demand only increased. There's only one Escher print hanging in the UK, in Glasgow's Hunterian Museum, and it's one of the 600. 

On perusing the shop afterwards, I came across one of my books in the Christmas display. I almost did an air punch, but took a picture instead (see the extra pic) and encouraged the staff to use their phone torches to read it. I left them to it. It's so nice to see the book so close to home.