Escher in The Paleis: The M.C. Escher Museum
History of The Palace
Pieter de Swart designed this beautiful building in 1760 for Anthony Patras, who was the mayor of Sloten and a general representative of the state. Construction was completed in 1764, and it was sold in 1796 to Archibald Hope. The Hope family financed European nobility and was known to lend money to both sides of a conflict. Napoleon stayed here for 14 hours in 1811 while traveling through Holland.
In 1896 the Palace was bought by Queen Emma from her brother-in-law Prince Hendrick. She rebuilt it in 1901 and added shiny copper banisters on the stairway to the first floor to achieve a more “regal” look, and while it appears that the stairs go all the way to the second floor, it is only an optical illusion, since the Queen had no chambers on the second floor. Visitors have to take the tiny spiral staircases the servants used to get to the top floors even today when visiting the museum.
The Palace served only as a winter home for the Queen, and was used mainly as a workspace for her daughter and granddaughter. The royal family sold the Palace in 1990 to the municipality of The Hague on the condition that it would only be used for cultural activities and since 2002, it has been the home of Escher’s work and life story.
The Visitor’s Experience
I had the pleasure to visit this wonderful place myself during my three week stay in Holland, and I would like to share my experience. To start, I knew who M.C. Escher was, and his works, but I wouldn’t have called myself a fan before I visited.
When I first entered, we were told to leave our bags in a locker in the basement room, then we had free reign to explore the museum. The first thing that struck me was that the interior was beautifully ornate. The second was that seeing images of Escher’s work didn’t even come close to seeing all the detail in person.
While getting up close to the work I was blown away by the fine lines his printings have, and I imagined how long it must have taken him to carve all those light and at times feathery details. The museum also had fun with adding a few more illusion based pieces that were made in his style.
The entirety of the top floor was optical illusions or visual experiences I didn’t even think to expect. It added a large interactive element many museums didn’t usually get or think to include.
Overall, I would highly recommend visiting this museum. The work is beautiful, the interactive elements were creative and fun to be apart of, and even the gift shop had many amazing souvenir options! Just don’t forget to bring your card, since they are cashless.
History of the Palace was taken from their website!
