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There are few lovelier scenes to think of than a young child completely absorbed in something. That certainly applies to 'Lotje'. This girl with a band in her hair is holding a basin of water tightly to herself. She carefully watches the little bird sitting on the edge of the basin. She is careful not to disturb it. The endearing bronze statue has stood in the public garden in the middle of Mezenlaan since 1996. At the time, it was unveiled by former minister and neighbour Hans Dijkstal. The sculptor is Wiepke van Dalsum-Wernick.

Van Dalsum was commissioned to make a sculpture in honour of the 50th anniversary of the Vogelwijk neighbourhood association. This was still during her studies at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. The neighbourhood association was founded on June 30, 1945, when the residents returned to their homes shortly after the end of the Second World War. In 1943, they had been forced to leave their homes by order of the occupying forces. The Atlantic Wall was erected in their neighbourhood to repel an invasion from the sea. While in the first post-war years the focus was mainly on rebuilding houses and lives, in the decades that followed the neighbourhood association organised many activities.

The sculptor herself grew up in the Vogelwijk. As a little girl, she regularly walked across Mezenplein. That inspired her to make this sculpture. Her eldest granddaughter Lotje was the model for it. Van Dalsum works as a classical artist. Whether she paints a landscape, draws a portrait of a flower, an animal or a human being, or immortalises a figure in bronze, she reproduces her subject true to nature. In doing so, she looks for unity and harmony. Just like in 'Lotje.