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When the bathhouse on Escamplaan opened its doors in February 1942, it was still under construction. Because of the bitterly cold war winter, many people visited public bathing facilities. If there was a bathroom in the house, it could not be heated. Let alone the water. Although richly endowed with bathhouses, there was a shortage in The Hague and the bathhouse on Escamplaan was opened early. In the 1970s, the bathhouse was closed and the building was given other uses.

It was a 'true palace': inside it was decorated with large murals and outside, high above the entrance, a stone relief by Dirk Bus was installed right at the time of construction in 1941. Bus depicted a man to the left and a woman to the right of a washbasin. A gargoyle in the shape of a lion's head fills the basin. The relief exudes an antique atmosphere. With their perfect bodies, somewhat veiled by cloths, and their hairstyles, the nudes are reminiscent of Roman gods.

And yet, the contemporary character of the image is unmistakable. With the nudes, Bus linked up with the visual language of socialist art, which reigned supreme in the Netherlands in the thirties. Work morals were often symbolised by perfectly built workmen. After the war, Bus' design became looser, the proportions less perfect. In those days the sculptor played an active role in the art world of The Hague, for example in the artists' group Verve (1951-1957). He was also chairman of the artists' association Pulchri Studio for many years. Artists worked together and influenced each other. Of course there were individual differences, but there was a common denominator: art from The Hague was not crude, but civilised. A local art movement had arisen: the New Haagse School. And Bus was part of it.