Artwork Data
Title
Kat
Artist
Year
1939
Material
Beton
Dimensions
h. 85 cm
Partial collection
Artwork Location
Address
Marie Jungiusweg, Den Haag
City district
Escamp
GPS data
52.0599756215625, 4.28315090230428 View on map
To be found on route
Artwork Description
Text
The 'Cat' by sculptor Gra Rueb has stood in the Zuiderpark since 1939. Wise, but also a bit angry because of the deep frown in his forehead. Is he dreaming ahead or is he lurking on a mouse or a little bird? In any case, the big cat is watching the walkers in the park from his pedestal. He has curled his thick tail around his paws. It looks as if he might swish it at any moment, like cats do when they sit dead still and concentrate on something that is moving.
Rueb made many animal sculptures. But not exclusively. She also made portrait busts, medals, garden sculptures and monuments. In The Hague, the emphasis is on animal sculpture. At the Willem Lodewijklaan, for example, there is a large deer in bronze by her hand. And ten granite animal tableaus by Rueb adorn the 'Zoo Bridge'. She worked in a stylised, robust style. With the strong simplification of forms, she connects to the work of sculptors from the first decades of the 20th century. Following in the footsteps of older artists such as Joseph Mendes da Costa (1863-1939) and Johan Altorf (1876-1955), she developed a predilection for animal figures.
Sculpting, a physically demanding profession, was considered a man's trade, but Rueb, thanks to tenacity and talent, managed to conquer her place in that man's world. In 1955, the 'Utrechts Nieuwsblad' wrote - Rueb was seventy at the time - that she was one of the few women in our country 'who practise sculpture'. She distinguished herself from her colleagues by her 'sense of humour', as art historian Cornelis Veth describes it. The 'Wise Cat' in the Zuiderpark has that touch of humour that Veth is talking about. The frown makes him funny, because it gives him a human expression. In this way the animal acts as a mirror for our peculiarities.