Little Thinker (Denkstertje)

About this artwork.

The Little Thinker stands in front of a school building. Wladimir de Vries made the sculpture as a commission from the municipality for the new construction of the school. Initially, the artist designed a model of a standing girl figure over three metres tall. The Council for the Arts rejected this design, one of the arguments being that with a height of over three metres the “child figure” would be lost. The second design was approved, and in March 1960 De Vries was given the final commission to produce the Little Thinker – a title that the artist did not come up with himself. It is unclear who came up with the name. The posture of the figure does not indicate that she is thinking: instead it appears as if she is staring intensely at something. Her left hand does not rest loosely on the stone, but is pressed against it, as if the girl could jump up at any moment to run away.

Young, budding female figures are an important theme in the work of Wladimir de Vries. The Little Thinker is an example of this. On the one hand, the girl figure, with its narrow waist, has a childlike appearance. Her legs and arms, on the other hand, are strong and give the figure a mature appearance. Apart from the fact that the artist wanted to depict nascent femininity, there may be a second reason why De Vries proportioned the girl in this way. According to the artist, a sculpture standing outside always loses volume through the space around it. That is why he often made them a little heavier, thickening certain parts of the body in order to do full justice to visual quality.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Wladimir de Vries

• District
  Stadspark

• Year of creation
  1960

• Art type
  Freestanding sculpture

• Material
  Bronze

• Dimensions
  h 1,15 m