Walking Route Along Art in the Schildersbuurt.

The sandstone reliefs in the facade of the former furniture factory refer to the original function of the building and were made by A.W. Kort, who was a furniture designer himself

The two naked men sit on their knees and work in utmost concentration. The figure on the left of the facade uses a drill, the man on the right a saw. The center section shows a peacock proudly spreading its feathers.

The furniture factory, built in Art Nouveau style, was designed by furniture designer A.J. Sanders. The building was completed in 1904. The owner of the factory was J.A. Huizinga, a well-known furniture manufacturer in the Netherlands at the time.

Even more naked male figures, now under the eye-catching semi-circular bay window on the corner of Hoendiepskade and Willem Barentszstraat. This building, a former oil factory with associated director's residence, was built in 1911 to a design by the architect M.G. Eelkema.

The bay window on the first floor is supported by two heavy natural stone consoles of which two bent, naked male figures form part. They seem to be carrying the bay window on their backs; their muscular bodies and faces are detailed.

The maker is probably Arie van der Lee, whose work can still be found on this route (at Taco Mesdagplein).

On the facade of the former cheese warehouse Anema on the Westerkade you will find the tableau De Alkmaar Cheese Carriers. It was created by Anno Smith, and is one of his best-known works. In the post-war period, the ceramist Anno Smith made many hundreds of porch decorations and facade tableaus for the city of Groningen, intended for residential complexes, schools, shops and factories, among others. It is not without reason that ceramic experts call Anno Smith 'the greatest decorator'.

Artist Jef Depassé created this robust work by welding together small pieces of brass with welding bronze. He was able to do a large part of the work in his studio at the time, but he had to go outside for the final composition. The statue became so large that it could no longer fit through the door.

The artwork stood for a long time at a busy traffic intersection near the Westerhaven. That went well for years until a drunk driver swerved and rammed the statue, causing serious damage. After restoration it was put back; It has been at its current location since 2003.

The red-painted keystone with a ram's head above the main entrance to the building on the corner of Astraat and Hoge der A was made in 1916 by Wim Haver. The stylized head is carved from natural stone.

In the city of Groningen two other natural stone works by Haver can be seen. The reliefs at the former Roman Catholic Hospital (in Helpman) are the best known. Haver's greatest artistic strength, however, did not lie in his 'stone work', but in wood sculpture.

The word DAMALS has been applied on the side wall of the Werkmanhuis near the second floor, in memory of the Groningen printer and artist Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman who had his printing business here from 1923 until he was murdered by the Germans in 1945. Artist Peter de Kan was inspired by The Next Call, a series of nine notebooks that Werkman published clandestinely between 1923 and 1926.

For the ninth and final Next Call, published in 1926 and dedicated to the Serbian avant-gardist Ljubomir Micić, Werkman wrote the poem Damals, which echoes despondency and resignation as well as longing and a longing for a lost paradise:

Damals als die Erde noch nicht rund war.
Damals als die Kunst noch keine Kunst war.
Damals als die Ameise noch nicht fleiszig war.
Damals als er noch jung war.
Damals als sie noch klein war.
Damals als meine Mutter noch sang.
Damals als es Sommer war.
Damals als es noch vorgestern war.
Damals als gestern noch nicht heute war.

In a niche in the middle of the north facade of the former Physics Laboratory, a sandstone female figure, rich in attributes with a symbolic meaning, has been placed on a pillar and under a canopy.

For example, the globe with the constellations refers to earthly and heavenly forces, represented here by geography and astronomy. Furthermore, the owl is the personification of wisdom, while the oak leaves symbolize, among other things, the forces of nature. Finally, the flower refers to the plant world.

The image is often referred to as Athena (goddess of wisdom), but other names are Nature or The Science of Natural Forces. The specific composition of the attributes in the image therefore refers to the various elements of the natural sciences.

This sculpture by Gjalt Blaauw is made from corten steel and dolomites from the German Ruhr area. The statue symbolizes the merger of educational institutions into healthcare. The client was the UMCG. During the celebration of the merger, the two rough pieces were unveiled in which the chairman of the UMCG made a first 'intervention'. Gjalt Blaauw was then commissioned to create a sculpture related to the merger, using these stones as a starting point.

Blaauw depicted this fusion by building a sculpture from the rough fragments, which he otherwise left untouched, the various parts of which lean against each other and which gradually becomes more and more 'streamlined'.

There is a freely accessible courtyard between Hofstede de Grootkade, Otto Eerelmanstraat, Wassenberghstraat and Taco Mesdagplein – called Het Palet by local residents. René de Boer made two works of art for this garden: Poort and Getrapte Toren. The statues have an identical top – made of corten steel and aluminum – which, in its shape, refers to the nearby water tower.

The environment was explicitly involved in the design that De Boer made together with a group of residents. Poort's rebar provides space for vegetation, and Getrapte Toren has become a popular climbing object for neighborhood children.

The ram with the large horns lies on a stone pedestal in which the lower body and legs of the animal appear to be sunken. Jan van Baren (1942-1995) created the stylized ram in 1977, as part of a planned (but never completed) series of twelve zodiac signs. In 1996, De Ram was given a place in the green strip on Taco Mesdagplein. Another sculpture that the artist made in this series is De Vis, which can now be found in the city garden on Mauritsstraat (Oosterpoort).

In the eastern facade of Taco Mesdagplein there is a gate with a sculpted frame. The gate dates from 1888 and for a long time formed the entrance to the cooperative bakery De Toekomst.

The relief around the entrance gate symbolizes the socialist struggle of that time. The two large figures – on the left a farm worker with a shovel, on the right an industrial worker with a sledgehammer – represent the glory of labor. The two figures are depicted again in small form: far left and right in the frieze.

The only woman in the statue carries a child in her arms. The figure with a waving banner is at the forefront of the socialist struggle. All seem to be on their way to the place where the sun rises – a symbol of the new times to come. Two male figures reach out to each other over the sun.

The two artificial stone reliefs at the top of the facade of the former school building from 1915 depict a school-going boy and girl. The reliefs are set in a natural stone frame. The creator of the images is unknown.

Milkman Willem Oosterveld had a building built in 1950 on the corner of Leeuwarderstraat-Taco Mesdagstraat. The building consisted of a home and business premises in the form of a milk facility. From here, Oosterveld delivered milk to your home every day. Now the tableau by ceramist Anno Smith (who also made the Cheese Carriers on the Westerkade) is a reminder of the original function of this building. The tableau shows a milkmaid in traditional costume, with a yoke on her shoulders from which two buckets of milk hang.

There is still a memory of a former resident to discover. When Willem Oosterveld's son retired, he sold the building in 1989 to visual artist Reinier van den Berg and his family. He designed a balcony railing made of Corten steel for the roof terrace, overlooking the Taco Mesdagstraat. Stylized tulips have been cut out of the corten steel plates.

On September 26, 1941, three bombs fell on three different houses in the Schildersbuurt in Groningen; an accidental bombardment by an English plane. The pilots assumed they were flying over uninhabited areas. Seven people were killed instantly: a 65-year-old widow, three small children from one family and three students who were together at a graduation party. A fourth student died a few months later from her injuries.

Artist and resident Dik Breunis assembled the memorial from three elements. The basis is a prefab concrete beam as a solid podium. A sheet of corten steel has been folded on it, containing the names and ages of the eight victims and a poem by Grietje Scholtens about what caused the bombardment. The lettering is cut into the plate with water jets.

The third element is a bronze shape, with a copper green patina, placed at the intersection of the concrete beam and corten steel plate. This bronze form again consists of three parts: a short, sturdy element for the older woman, a larger element with a rougher skin for the students and a high, more tortuous element for the children. The top of the three bronze shapes refers to Stolpersteine.

This sculpture by Jan van Baaren (who also made the work De Ram that is on the Taco Mesdagplein) is made of vaurion, a French limestone. The work from 1981 was originally located in Vinkhuizen, where it could no longer remain after the redevelopment of the Siersteenlaan. The work ended up in its current location in 2018 via the municipal storage. There, the relocation of the artwork was part of the project 'From messy green to Blekersplantsoen', in which local residents were closely involved. In its current location, Lotusknop seems to fit in well with how Jan van Baren once described his role as a sculptor; he saw it as his function “to try, if possible, to give people a place of respite in a time of discontent, confusion and disharmony.”