Escher in the Palace

Escher Museum

The Escher Museum is located in the former Lange Voorhout Palace.
Established	15 November 2002
Location	The Hague, Netherlands
Type	Art, prints, drawing museum
Visitors	100,000
Director	B. Tempeal
Curator	M. Piller
Public transit access	Tram line 16 or 17 Korte Voorhout
Website	www.escherinhetpaleis.nl

The Escher Museum (Escher in het Paleis, Escher in the Palace) is a museum in The Hague, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch graphical artist M. C. Escher. This museum opened on 15 November 2002.

The museum is housed in a former palace Lange Voorhout Palace dating from the eighteenth century. Queen Emma (Emma of Waldeck Pyrmont) bought the stately house in 1896. She used it as a winter palace from March 1901 till her death in March 1934. Four Dutch Queens used the palace for their business offices, till Queen Beatrix moved the office to Paleis Noordeinde, about 10 minutes walk from Escher in Het Paleis. In all the former 'Royal Rooms' first and second floor there are window shades with information about the interior in Emma's time. There are two rooms dedicated to Emma's period and often there are photo enlargements or other information about Queen Mother Emma on display besides the never-ending Escher exhibition.

The museum features a permanent display of a large number of woodcuts and lithographs by Escher, among them the world famous prints Air and Water (birds become fish); Belvedere (the inside out of a Folly); Waterfall (where water seems to flow upwards); Drawing (two hands drawing each other). Escher in Het Paleis shows the early lovely Italian landscapes, the many mirror prints and a choice from the tesselation drawings, further the three versions of the Metamorphosis, from the first small one to the third of 7 meters. This one is shown in a circle. It underlines the new vision of the museum on the work of M.C. Escher.

The third floor of the museum is dedicated to the Optical Illusion, besides the famous Escher Room in which grownups seem to be smaller than their children one's eyes will be tricked by multiple interactive dispays.

Royal Palace

Queen-mother Emma, great-great grandmother of King Willem-Alexander, used the Palace as a Winterpalace until her death in 1934. She lived in the Palace from 1901 until 1934. Until 1990 the Queens Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix used the Palace..

Сhandeliers

In the rooms of the museum are fifteen chandeliers made by the Rotterdam artist Hans van Bentem. The artist designed these especially for the museum, with some references to the work of Escher and the Palace. In the ballroom, a star chandelier is endlessly reflected in the two mirrors. In other rooms there are chandeliers such as a shark, a skull, spiders, and a sea horse.

Parquet floor

The parquet floor in the Palace has been designed in 1991/92 by the American minimal artist Donald Judd on the occasion of the opening of the former Royal palace as a exhibition Palace. Judd applied the principle of different colours and geometric patterns to the parquet floor in the Palace.

External links

Media related to Paleis Lange Voorhout at Wikimedia Commons

• Escher in het Paleis (official website)