2023, The Hague, City of Escher

In 2023 The Hague will turn into the City of Escher. Both Escher in The Palace and the Kunstmuseum Den Haag celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of the famous graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972). Furthermore a host of activities will be organised in the city, for example a number of buildings in the centre of The Hague will be ‘dressed’ in Escher Style.

Exhibitions at Escher in The Palace

Until 12 February 2023	Escher: Eternity and Infinity
18 February to 1 October 2023	The Man Who Discovered Escher: Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita
3 November 2023 to 24 March 2024	Just Like Escher

Exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag

18 February to 10 September 2023

Escher – Other World

Escher’s special palace connections

The building of Escher at The Palace museum was bought in 1896 by Queen Regent Emma of the Netherlands. From 1901 to her death in 1934 the Lange Voorhout Palace, as it was called, was her residence in the wintertime. For the Dutch Queens Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix it was mainly a working palace. In 1990, the royal family sold the building to the municipality of The Hague on the condition that it would only be used for cultural activities. Since November 2002, the palace has been housing the permanent exhibition of M.C. Escher’s work and life.

Interestingly M.C. Escher was born in another royal palace, the Princessehof in Leeuwarden. He also spent the first years of his life here. The museum since a few years houses a small exhibition in the basement of the Princessehof: At home with Escher. The widow of Stadtholder Johan Willem Friso of Nassau-Dietz, Prince of Orange, Maria Louise of Hesse-Kassel, lived in this city palace from 1731 to 1765. There still is a room in the museum, that has been decorated with portraits and objects of Maria Louise and her family. Furthermore the building houses the National Museum of Ceramics. The present King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, is a direct descendant of Maria Louise.