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In the 1960s, the international Fluxus movement dominated sculpture in the Netherlands. Fluxus questions the authentic form of art. The experiment is central. The boundaries between different artistic disciplines are blurred. The artist searches frantically for new materials and performs during happenings and actions. The sending of postcards is also considered a form of art (mail-art).

In the same 1960s, a completely different wind blew in the commissioning circuit. Commissioning committees remained loyal to academism. In 1963, for instance, Bertus Sondaar, who once belonged to the vanguard but later worked traditionally, was commissioned to make a portrait bust of Louis Couperus (1863-1923). This was done to commemorate the birth of the renowned writer one hundred years earlier in the Archipelago district of The Hague.

Before Sondaar left for Paris in the 1930s, he was taught by the well-known sculptor Jan Bronner (1881-1972), whose static, 'architectural' teaching influenced Sondaar's work. He went to Paris to free his art from the straitjacket of architecture. In the French capital Sondaar took lessons from portrait sculptor Charles Despiau (1874-1926). Despiau was interested in form; he conceived of forms as closed volumes. Simplification in modelling and the omission of details are also key concepts in his oeuvre.

In Sondaar's sculptures, the views and working methods of both his teachers merge. The bronze portrait bust of Couperus in the Surinamestraat is severe and static, without superfluous detailing. Yet the portrait does not lack emotion or character. On the contrary. The terms unprejudiced and 'sensitive realism' are appropriate here. Sondaar does not allude to the author's sexual orientation, nor to his dandyish behaviour. With this portrait, he aptly portrays him as a versatile and gifted poet and novelist, who left us many beautiful works, such as 'Eline Vere' (1889) and 'De stille kracht' (1900).