What is the theme of reptiles by M C Escher?

Reptiles is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher first printed in March 1943. It touches on the theme found in much of his work of mathematics in art . Reptiles depicts a desk upon which is a two dimensional drawing of a tessellated pattern of reptiles and hexagons, Escher's 1939 Regular Division of the Plane.

What are Escher’s reptiles freeing themselves from?

Escher himself called what the reptiles are freeing themselves from ‘a sketchbook’, but it is of course one of his own design sketchbooks. In 1939 he created Regular division drawing nr 25, featuring these reptiles.

How many copies of the lithograph Reptiles were printed?

For this lithograph, Reptiles, he did have to borrow a stone. That is why only 30 copies were printed*. On 19 August 1960 he gave a lecture in Cambridge, during which he said of this print: ‘On the page of an opened sketchbook a mosaic of reptiles can be seen, drawn in three colours.

Did Escher give his drawings a title?

Incidentally, Escher did not give his regular division drawings a title. He sometimes referred to the reptilians as ‘congruent figures of reptilian form’, but didn’t go beyond this description. In her book Visions of Symmetry, in which she elaborates on all the drawings from Escher’s notebooks, author Doris Schattschneider does go beyond it.