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In the pond at Vijverzicht, a sterite mermaid floats. She raises her hands triumphantly. The flapping hair suggests a stiff breeze that sometimes contrasts with the wrinkle-free water surface from which the mermaid seems to have just emerged. The apparent weight of the plastic from which the woman fish is sculpted is negated by the floating ability she apparently possesses.

Rob Pleysier likes happy sculptures. Elsewhere in The Hague, his sculptures testify to a positive attitude to life, such as the sculpture 'Joy' of a stylised female figure carried on wings. There is a strong similarity between that sculpture from 1962 and the mermaid the artist made almost fifteen years later. In both sculptures, the arms reaching towards heaven underline the ultimate moment of exuberant bliss.

In the image of the mermaid, sensual female features are combined with animal characteristics. The fish tail is not missing. The figurative style fits in with Pleysier's development. Over the course of his career, his work became increasingly figurative. His need for abstraction went further in 1962 than in 1976 and was increasingly abandoned in the following years. This is remarkable. Artists usually develop in the opposite direction: from figuration to abstraction.

Pleysier has enriched his home town of The Hague with sculptures in which he testifies to his connection with the figurative tradition. Moreover, he cherishes valuable moments by immortalising them in sculpture. The influence of his academy teachers Bon Ingen Housz, Dirk Bus, Henri van Haaren and Pieter d'Hont can be seen in the traditional qualities of his sculptures.