Escher first visited Corsica in 1928, returning again in 1933 with his wife Jutta. He was evidently enraptured by the rugged beauty of the landscape, making a total of ten prints of the island, including three woodcuts of the fortress town of Calvi. This version from the second visit in 1933, depicts the celebrated view of Calvi from La Pinède. The sunlit citadel is glimpsed across the shimmering bay through a silhouetted tracery of Corsican pine trees on the foreshore, exquisitely rending the atmospheric effects of Mediterranean light and shade. The distinctive branches backlit by a full moon re-appear in Escher's celebrated woodcut Puddle, 1952, reflected in a pool of water collected in a crisscrossing network of muddy car tracks, and perhaps evokes a longing for an earlier, youthful serenity.

Henk Calkoen studied life drawing and graphic art with Escher under the tutelage of Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita (1868-1944) at the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts from 1919-1922. With his wife Heleen (née van Thienen), Henk was an early friend and supporter of the artist, penning one of the first published articles about Escher's in the Dutch magazine Eigen Haard in January 1920, titled "De schoone eenvoud" (Beautiful Simplicity). The couple shared the artist's love of Italy, visiting Escher in Sienna on the occasion of his first one-man exhibition from 13-26 August at the Circolo Artistico.

Impressions of Pineta of Calvi, Corsica are exceptionally rare. According to our records, only one other example has appeared at auction in the last three decades.