Artwork Data
Title
Monument Grenadiers en Jagers
Artist
Year
1951
Material
brons / steenachtig
Dimensions
385 cm
Artwork Location
Address
Böttgerwater, Den Haag
City district
Leidschenveen-Ypenburg
GPS data
52.0386100701793, 4.370987544852 View on map
To be found on route
Artwork Description
Text
Dirk Bus made his debut in the early 1930s in the art gallery 't Center. In the Nieuwe Courant of 8 April 1950, the sculptor from The Hague refers to this exhibition, which apparently did not go particularly well for him in terms of sales: 'Nobody buys those attractive little plastics'.
However, success soon followed. Large commissions came for Bus. The Hague has countless building sculptures and sculptures by him, such as the animal sculptures on the bridge abutments of the Lijnbaan in 1931 and 1936 and the monument for Grenadiers and Hunters from 1951 on the Johan de Wittlaan opposite the Stadhoudersplantsoen. The municipality moved this monument in 1964 from the Hofweg to the quiet Staatsliedenbuurt neighbourhood due to vandalism and a changed traffic situation.
At the request of the Grenadiers and Jagers regiment, the monument was moved again in 2010. This time to the Böttgerwater in Vinex district Ypenburg. In the neighbourhood, streets are named after the Grenadiers and Jagers who fought in May 1940 in the battle for Ypenburg airfield.
Bus's art was in demand in the court city for its striking depictions of man and beast. The Grenadiers and Jagers fulfilled everyone's imagination of warlike soldiers: sturdy young men, kneeling with their rifle at the ready. The bronze statue stands on a natural stone pedestal, in which the emblems of the Grenadiers and the Jagers are carved: a grenade and a horn respectively. The text underneath explains that the monument has not only been erected to commemorate those who fell in the Netherlands at the start of the war or later in the resistance. It is also intended for soldiers who did not return from the Dutch East Indies and Korea. In memory of our comrades in arms, who gave their lives for the Fatherland in the May days of 1940 and afterwards - here and overseas'.
Links
https://10mei1940.historischypenburg.nl