Artwork Data

Title

Veiligheid in verkeer

Artist

Dirk Wolbers

Year

1937

Material

steenachtig

Dimensions

180 cm

Artwork Location

Address

Laan van Meerdervoort, Den Haag

City district

Scheveningen

GPS data

52.080666573087, 4.2826706881935 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

Halfway across the Conrad Bridge stands the statue of a mother safely guiding her two children through traffic. Much care and attention has been paid to the fabric expression. The folds in jackets and skirts that are lightly touched by the wind look impeccable. The facial expressions of mother and children are also meticulously rendered. Striking details are the two 'scale models' of cars on the pedestal, which appear at the height of the children's feet as a warning to the traffic. A bitter incidental circumstance is that the maker of this sculpture died in a car accident.

Dirk Wolbers, who was educated at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and the Académie des Beaux Arts in Brussels, among other places, became particularly famous as a sculptor and drawer of human figures and portraits. But also as a designer of medals and medallions (including a bronze medal for the municipality of The Hague), as the creator of resistance monuments in Vlaardingen, Deventer and Zeist and of the flood monument in Hontenisse. Several of his works are included in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.

Wolbers' style and working method are related to those of the sculptors of the Amsterdam School (1916-1926). His sculptures show strong similarities to the work of Mendes da Costa, Hendrik van den Eijnde and Hildo Krop. Wolbers was not an innovator, but nevertheless made an important contribution to the 'decoration' of public space. Mastery of craft skills, an anecdotal approach and attention to everyday life were central to the work of the small army of traditional sculptors to which Wolbers belonged.

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