Scholten Monument

About this artwork.

A bronze sculpture sits atop a limestone wall. Jan Evert Scholten (1849-1918), the man for whom this monument was made, looks proudly into the City Park. Two child figures in sportswear have been carved from the wall on which the sculpture stands: a girl with clubs and a boy with a discus. The brittle plaques next to it show a horse with a foal and a horse with a cart and cart.

These are all references to the relationship between Scholten and the park he looks into. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the major industrialist donated the land on which the Stadspark (City Park) opened in 1913. Scholten strives to create a place where the residents of Groningen can exercise, walk and relax. After his death in 1918, the idea for a monument quickly emerged. The project is being realized under the leadership of J.H. Mulock-Houwer in collaboration with sculptors Abraham Hesselink and J.W. from Tetterode. When it opened in 1931, there was also a fountain, a feature that disappeared in subsequent years.

In 2020, the Scholten Monument was severely damaged by a collision with a car. The municipality of Groningen decided to fully restore the monument, with the sculptures of the boy and the girl being recreated on the basis of photographs. The fountains and small nozzles are also painstakingly recreated to return the monument as close as possible to its original form. The restoration is completed in 2023.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Abraham Hesselink

• District
  Stadspark

• Year of creation
  1931

• Art type
  Monument

• Material
  Bronze, Granite, Limestone

• Dimensions
  h 4,30 m