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Now it has a good home in the Zuiderpark, but around 2000 this 'Sun' was still standing near a school building on Guntersteinweg. The 1961 sculpture is a typical 'Aart van den IJssel'. The unusual choice of metal in those days, the sharp, vicious points and the choice of the 'Sun' as a theme are typical 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 colourful figure in the post-war Voorburg art circuit. Like a Dutch Dali - he looked a bit like one - he recorded his bizarre ideas in sculptures, utensils, drawings and paintings. With his unconventional approach, he made a small contribution to innovation in art. That is why in 2004 the municipality of Voorburg attached his name to an oeuvre prize for professional visual artists who are affiliated with it.