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Thanks to the energetic work of the Municipal Art Commission in the 1960s, The Hague can boast a sculpture by one of the most famous modern sculptors of the 20th century: Alsatian-born Jean Arp. Moreover, it is one of his last sculptures, as Arp died not long after its completion. He was not able to see his sculpture in The Hague himself.

When the seven-year spending restriction was lifted in 1963 and half a million guilders became available for the purchase of art, the Art Commission managed to acquire sculptures by great artists such as Marino Marini, Henry Moore, Antoine Pevsner and also Arp. Arp was already regarded as one of the most important sculptors of the abstract tradition. Until 1930, he mainly explored coincidence and automatism, like his fellow artists of the DADA movement did. With their so-called 'anti-art', they opposed the artistic and social developments just before and after the First World War.

From 1930, Arp turned his attention more and more to nature and the human figure. Nowhere did he imitate them directly, but they can be found in the organic forms of his abstract sculptures. Arp did not want anything to do with sculptures that were grafted onto the tradition of classical antiquity. He had no refined, smooth nudes in academic poses. He was looking for a new imagination. That new way of depicting is certainly visible in the abstract 'Scrutant l'horizon'.