George Arnold Escher (10 May 1843 – 14 June 1939) was a Dutch

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

and a foreign advisor to the Japanese government during the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

.Louman, Johannes. (2007). He was the father of the

graphic artist A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming l ...

M. C. Escher and the geologist Berend George Escher.

Career

Escher was hired by the Japanese government as a foreign advisor from September 1873 to July 1878, along with fellow Dutch civil engineers Johannis de Rijke and Cornelis Johannes van Doorn. During his stay in Japan, he designed and supervised the restoration of the Yodo river (

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

), and built a harbour in Mikuni in

Fukui prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 737,229 (1 January 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,190 Square kilometre, km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture border ...

. Escher also collaborated on works in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

with Johannis de Rijke, including works related to the sandbank at the mouth of the Huangpu Jiang. This tributary of the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

plays a crucial role in Shanghai's international trade.Yellow River Conservancy Commission
"Speech by Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange,"
2005; ; retrieved 2013-4-5. Escher accompanied de Rijke on an exploratory visit to Shanghai and compiled a report that garnered considerable attention, though it did not culminate in immediate implementation. After returning to the Netherlands, he worked in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

. During this time, he recorded in his diary his difficulty as a Protestant in finding a suitable marriage partner in

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Maastricht who would also be able to satisfy his equation v = 1/2m + 10, where ''v'' was the age of the woman, and ''m'' the age of the husband. In 1882, Escher married Charlotte Marie Hartitzsch, with whom he had two sons. He became a widower in 1885, and in 1892 married Sara Gleichman, with whom he had three more sons. Escher worked as a hydraulic engineer in Leeuwarden. In 1903 the family moved to

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

Notes

References

* Kamibayashi, Yoshiyuki.
"Two Dutch Engineers and Improvements of Public Works in Japan,"
Proceedings of the Third International Congress on Construction History, Cottbus, May 2009. * Louman, Johannes Petrus Antonius. (2007)
''Fries waterstaatsbestuur: een geschiedenis van de waterbeheersing in Friesland vanaf het midden van de achttiende eeuw tot omstreeks 1970.''
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press
OCLC 150391614

External links

*
御雇オランダ人工師エッセルの「阪井港修築建議」の現代文訳

Career

Notes

References

External links

Further reading