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The sculpture from 1961 is a typical “Aart van den IJssel” piece. The choice of metal—which was unusual at the time—the sharp, menacing points, and the choice of the “Sun” as a theme are characteristic of the work of this artist from Voorburg.

Under the influence of his childhood friend, the painter Herman Berserik, Van den IJssel started drawing and painting at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. At the Free Academy in The Hague he learned stone sculpting from Rudi Rooijackers. The relaxed climate at the latter academy and the discovery of the assemblages by pre-war avant-gardists such as Picasso and Dali meant that Van den IJssel soon decided to give shape to his unbridled fantasies in metal. His welded and soldered creatures, such as armoured horses and insects with vicious spines, are well known. They look aggressive but are made in a refined way.

Van den IJssel was fascinated by nature, its beauty but also its cruelty and transience. The art of prehistoric peoples, made to worship natural phenomena or, on the contrary, to exorcise them, was therefore an important source of inspiration. That is why the sun regularly appears in his work, as a symbol of masculinity and virility: sometimes independently, as here, but mostly as the prickly shining aureole of a 'Sun Rider'.

Van den IJssel was a colorful figure in the postwar art scene in Voorburg. Like a Dutch Dalí—he even looked a bit like him—he captured his bizarre ideas in sculptures, functional objects, drawings, and paintings. With his unconventional approach, he contributed to artistic innovation within a small circle. That is why, in 2004, the municipality of Voorburg named a lifetime achievement award for professional visual artists after him.