Artwork Data

Title

Dynamisch-Contemplatief

Artist

Marian Gobius

Year

1948

Material

Brons

Dimensions

h. 135 cm

Artwork Location

Address

Leidsestraatweg 77, Den Haag

City district

Haagse Hout

GPS data

52.101734062272, 4.3549270927906 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

At the age of 80, she still actively participated in Voorburg's cultural life. As co-founder and volunteer, sculptor Marian Gobius assisted Museum Swaensteyn in word and deed. Every Wednesday afternoon, children also came to her studio to make clay. When she died in 1994, Museum Swaensteyn honoured her with an exhibition. In addition, a corner of her studio full of tools and clay figurines was transferred in its entirety to one of the museum's rooms. It is a lasting tribute to a striking personality, who 'never did anything but sculpt'.

As a young girl she started her sculpture studies in Switzerland, to continue them later in Paris. In the Netherlands, she was taught by the well-known Belgian sculptor Toon Dupuis (1877-1937) and the Nestor of Dutch sculpture Jan Bronner (1881-1972). Both worked in a naturalistic style, Bronner somewhat angular and static, Dupuis smooth and agile. Gobius never became a true Bronner or Dupuis aficionado. Although she held on to naturalism, her work is more expressive than that of her two masters.
She put a lot of feeling in the few war memorials she made. And when she portrayed someone, she knew how to penetrate to the essence of that person, whether a child or an adult. Gobius made busts of many important people, such as Princess Juliana. In addition, she created over 130 child busts and dozens of garden sculptures.

The sculpture 'Dynamic-Contemplative' is such a garden sculpture. It stands on a lawn in the beautiful surroundings of Park Marlot. A little boy is sitting on the ground, lost in thought and looking down in contemplation. Behind him stands a second boy, looking alertly ahead, tulips in his arms. His posture is dynamic: standing, legs apart and upper body twisted. With the boys as personifications, Gobius has harmoniously depicted the contrast between the two states of mind.

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