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In the park opposite Kuinrestraat, a girl is sitting on a bench. Her appearance displays a curious mixture of self-confidence, arrogance and serenity. She raises her head somewhat haughtily and her hands lie somewhat unnaturally in her lap. Her legs and feet are neatly and tightly together and her back is perfectly straight. The sitting position is not really relaxed; rather alert. And her gaze is a perfect balance of introverted, probing and spying.

Since 1961, the leafy surroundings have offered all the peace and quiet and space that the bronze 'Girl on a bench' needs to be at its best. A pond, a reed bed, a lawn and characteristic trees contribute to a paradisiacal situation where everyone would like to be. Sculptor Rudi Rooijackers has done everything in his power to ensure that the sculpture fits in optimally with the surroundings. He was commissioned to make an independent work of art under the so-called percentage regulation. Under this scheme, 1.5 percent of the construction price of government buildings is earmarked for art. Because the housing shortage was high after the Second World War, the municipality asked the Commissie Kunstopdrachten (art commission) to place sculptures along public roads, in addition to nail-biting art.

Rooijackers trained at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and is regarded as a sculptor who does not allow himself to be pigeonholed and works in both a figurative and non-figurative manner. This characteristic made him fulfil a bridging function between two movements in sculpture that often unnecessarily condemned each other.
As a lecturer at the Vrije Academie in Amsterdam, Rooijackers contributed to the training and education of several sculptors, including Jaroslawa Dankowa, Phil van de Klundert, Dick Loef and Pim van der Maas. Like their teacher, they later left their mark on The Hague's public space.