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Paul de Reus' 'Coat' is teeming with people. Children's heads are thronging together just above the collar of the gigantic, rough coat. Under the coat, dozens of tiny legs emerge and at least as many hands stick out of the sleeves. The 'Coat' creates the impression of walking.

De Reus made this freshly painted bronze for the new building of a primary school on Den Helderstraat. The sculpture is much less raw than his free sculptures. Those are usually rough and clumsy sculptures carved in wood. They depict people with all their oddities and flaws. That is not to say that the 'Coat' is not recognisable as a De Reus. The characteristic design is clearly reflected in it. The gigantic size of the coat, for instance, is not in proportion to the legs, hands and heads.

Nor is humour lacking. Although it is a little less sharp and wry in 'The Coat'. Underneath the cheerfulness of the 'Coat', however, lies a subtle, critical comment. As far as De Reus is concerned, the coat can be seen not only as a warm, protective cloak, but also as a straitjacket. After all, from the age of four, children have to keep to the rules of school.

The motif of the coat comes from the children's book 'Opa', which De Reus made in 2005 for the Glubbdubdrib series of Van Waveren publishers. The book is about a boy whose late grandfather had only one coat at home. He fantasises about how his grandfather's whole family walked the streets together in that one coat.

Since children always like to be big and adult, De Reus made the sculpture as high (about three metres) as three children on top of each other. In this way the sculpture retains its human scale and at the same time is in good proportion to the approximately seven-metre high school building.