Portrait of Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita

Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita

1868–1944 · Kingdom of the Netherlands

After the Nazis deported De Mesquita and his family in February 1944, M.C. Escher went to his teacher's ransacked house and rescued as much of his work as he could. Some of the prints Escher saved still bear the muddy boot prints of German soldiers. De Mesquita, his wife Elisabeth and their son Jaap all died in the camps.

Timeline

1868
Born in Amsterdam into a Sephardic Jewish family with roots in Portugal. He grew up in the city's established Jewish community.
1886
Enrolled at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam at eighteen, training in drawing and printmaking.
1902
Appointed teacher at the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts (later the Gerrit Rietveld Academie) in Haarlem at thirty-four, a position he would hold for over four decades.
1916
A young M.C. Escher became his pupil at the Haarlem school. The two developed a lifelong friendship, and Escher credited Mesquita as his most important teacher.
1926
At fifty-eight, produced some of his most striking woodcuts in Haarlem, combining bold Art Nouveau forms with expressionist distortion in portraits and animal studies.
1940
The German occupation of the Netherlands placed his family in increasing danger at seventy-two. Anti-Jewish measures progressively stripped him of his teaching position and freedoms.
1944
Arrested with his wife and son in Amsterdam at the age of seventy-five and deported to Auschwitz, where all three were murdered. Escher rescued a large portion of his prints from the abandoned house.

Biography

He was born in Amsterdam in 1868, of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish origin. He trained there and was appointed teacher at the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem in 1902, where he remained until 1926. Escher was his most famous student; it was De Mesquita who convinced the young Escher to abandon architecture for graphic arts, a decision that changed twentieth-century visual culture.

De Mesquita produced over four hundred prints, including woodcuts, wood engravings, etchings and lithographs, plus drawings and textile designs. His animal and bird woodcuts, with their stark black-and-white stylisation influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e, are among his most distinctive work. He was not religiously observant despite his Sephardic community background. His wife Elisabeth was gassed alongside him at Auschwitz; their son Jaap perished at Theresienstadt a month later. He died at Auschwitz, around 11 February 1944, at seventy-five.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita born?+
Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita was born in 1868 in Kingdom of the Netherlands. He died in 1944, aged 76.
When did Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita die?+
Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita died in 1944 at the age of 76.
What art movement was Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita part of?+
Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita was associated with the Surrealism movement.