''House of Stairs'' is a

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

print by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

artist

M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for most of his life neglected in t ...

first printed in November 1951. This print measures . It depicts the interior of a tall structure crisscrossed with stairs and doorways. A total of 46 '' wentelteefje'' (imaginary creatures created by Escher) are crawling on the stairs. The ''wentelteefje'' has a long, armored body with six legs,

humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and ''-oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans. By the 20t ...

feet, a parrot-like beak and eyes on stalks. Some are seen to roll in through doors, wound in a wheel shape and then unroll to crawl up the stairs, while others crawl down stairs and wind up to roll out. The ''wentelteefje'' first appeared earlier the same month in the lithograph ''

Curl-up ''Curl-up'' or ''Wentelteefje'' (original Dutch title) is a lithograph print by M. C. Escher, first printed in November 1951. This is the only work by Escher consisting largely of text. The text, which is written in Dutch, describes an imaginary ...

''. Later that month, ''House of Stairs'' was extended to a vertical length of in a print titled ''House of Stairs II'' by repeating and mirroring some of the architecture and creatures.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:House Of Stairs Works by M. C. Escher 1951 prints