Text

The statue of Queen Wilhelmina that now adorns the small square on Paleisstraat could have looked very different. In 1963, a committee was formed to create a national Wilhelmina monument in honour of the 'Mother of the Netherlands', who died in 1962. At the request of this committee, various artists and architects came up with a design. The entries varied from a symbolic ribbon of boulders (architect Frans van Dillen and sculptor Hans Petri) to a white dome with photos and texts of the deceased queen (architect Aldo van Eyck). However, there was no general approval for such (abstract) designs. As a result, twenty years later there was still no national Wilhelmina monument.

In 1984, an official working group suggested using the plaster model of Charlotte van Pallandts (1897-1997) Rotterdam's Wilhelmina. That proved to be a godsend. Fortunately, that plaster model had been preserved at collector Hannema de Stuers in Heino. In cooperation with urban planner and architect Professor van Embden, the sculpture's surroundings were designed. On 28 November 1987, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Wilhelmina's death, the National Wilhelmina Monument was finally unveiled by Princess Juliana and Queen Beatrix.

The Wilhelmina Monument is Van Pallandt's best-known sculpture. She had originally made it in 1966 for the city of Rotterdam. She drew inspiration from a newspaper photo in which Wilhelmina unveils a sculpture by Mari Andriessen. There she can be seen as a triangular shape from below. That triangle, that was her', according to Van Pallandt. The Rotterdam sculpture was made in white granite with very little detailing. For The Hague she had the original plaster design executed in dark bronze. This version from The Hague also shows little detail, not even in the face. Nevertheless, Princess Juliana felt that this was exactly her mother. Lonely but not alone'; it is Wilhelmina in full.