Artwork Data

Title

Monument voor hen die vielen

Artist

Arie Teeuwisse

Year

1961

Material

Brons

Artwork Location

Address

Keizerstraat, Den Haag

City district

Scheveningen

GPS data

52.106668869824, 4.2729548347099 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

In The Hague, you can find various monuments erected in memory of the victims of the Second World War, as well as in Scheveningen. In the centre of the fishing village, there is such a monument on the lawn around the Old Church on the Keizerstraat: 'For those who fell 1940-1945'.

Immediately after the liberation, the people of Scheveningen began to collect money for a monument to commemorate their war dead. The fishermen had had a hard time: many ships had been looted by the Germans and the others were only allowed to sail in very limited numbers. In 1953, the Scheveningen 'Committee for the fallen fishermen in the Second World War' set about collecting the monument. The Amsterdam sculptor Arie Teeuwisse was commissioned to make a sculpture. The monument was unveiled on 28 October 1961.

Teeuwisse's bronze sculpture has been placed on the hardstone plinth with a plaque. He depicted two people in a boat. A seated female figure has her hands over her eyes and ears, while the male figure is standing and with her hand on her shoulder, she is looking towards a safe harbour. The boat sways on the waves of the sea. Remarkably, the waves have the shape of a hand: God's hand. Teeuwisse leaves it to the viewer's imagination whether the boat with people is submerged in the waves, or is caught in God's safety.

Although Teeuwisse's animal sculptures are best known, he also sculpted human figures. In his animal sculptures he is very close to reality, but in his figures Teeuwisse allows himself more freedom. That is why these sculptures look more abstract. Nevertheless, in his work reality remains clearly visible. Exactly as he had learned from his teacher at the Rijksakademie: the renowned sculpture professor Jan Bronner.

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