Art: Prying Dutchman

Maurits Escher is one of Europe's most original graphic artists, and an extremely skilled one, but his talent has not brought him much fame. At 52, he lives a pinched life with his family in the town of Baarn (pop. 15,000), two miles from Queen Juliana's Soestdijk Palace. He works hunched over a table by an upstairs window, making woodcuts and lithographs that sell badly. Escher seldom has a chance to show his prints, but last week the Baarn High School had 30 of them on display.

The reaction to the show was slight, as Escher has learned to expect. "It's interesting,"...

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