Corsica Corte 1929

M. C. Escher made this print of Corsica Corte using wood engraving, a technique that demands the utmost precision. The image captures a quiet corner of Corte, a town nestled in the mountainous heart of Corsica. Escher’s early work shows the artist as a kind of tourist, finding in the vernacular architecture of southern Europe a kind of irregular beauty. The sharp contrasts of light and shadow lend the scene a dreamlike quality, as if the artist found something surreal in the ordinary. Escher was interested in how things fit together, a spatial intelligence he would later develop into his trademark impossible constructions. Here, the roofs and stonework show him working out an aesthetic of tessellation, finding harmony in repetition. To understand Escher, we might look into the cultural institutions that shaped him: his education, his travels, and the artistic movements of his time. By situating his work within this broader context, we can understand how a seemingly simple image reflects the complex world of its creation.