Puddle

Escher printed this example of Puddle on tissue-thin "Japan" paper.

This delicate paper held the artist's inks with a unique translucency and vibrance.

In this photo one can see that the paper is so thin that the ink appears virtually identical from the front and back of the sheet.

Puddle

(B.378) 1952 Woodcut printed in brown, grey-green, and black from three blocks
signed in pencil (9½” X 12½”)

Escher often tells his story quite indirectly, leaving the viewer to construct whatever impressions of reality seem appropriate. In this woodcut, certainly one of Escher’s most beautiful and sublime creations, we can tell ourselves a story about what has just happened in this place and also gaze through the earth, into the water, and contemplate the moon. The artist wrote of this print, “The calm cloudless evening sky is reflected in a puddle which a shower has left behind in a rutted hollow of a woodland road. Traces of trucks, bicycles and pedestrians are imprinted in the soggy ground.”