Flower 1920

M.C. Escher made this print, simply titled ‘Flower’, and we can see how he approached the botanical subject methodically. It's all about process: a network of hatching builds up the form, revealing the subject incrementally. He starts with a dark ground, constructed from cross-hatched lines. Escher lays down shadow first, and then allows the flower to emerge into the light through a slow choreography of mark-making. Look closely, and you’ll see the way the diagonal lines shift and change direction to describe the curves of the petals. In the lower half of the flower, the petals seem to droop or decay, while the upper half almost bristles, with spiky thorns that recall the artist’s more fantastical, invented forms. Escher studied the natural world extensively, and you can see a similar devotion to observation in the work of Karl Blossfeldt, who documented plant forms with scientific precision, revealing hidden structures. In both cases, the artists transform the ordinary into something altogether more strange and mysterious.