Het wantrouwen (Staande boer)

Distrust (Standing Farmer) (Het wantrouwen (Staande boer)) is one of Herman Kruyder’s few sculptural works. He has respected the elongated block shape of the wood: the sculpture appears to be designed to stand against a wall, almost as a relief, rather than as a piece that we might walk around. A resemblance to African art can be seen in the expressive, distorted proportions of the work. The dangling arm, for example, reaches down to the knee and the leg (or are there two legs?) is short. What is most striking is the shape of the inclined head and its connection to the torso. The lines of the front and back of the head meet at the neck in the acute angle of the chin. The two-part title finds its expression primarily in the large eye, where the suspicion is concentrated, and in the long arm, which alludes to physical labor. According to the artist’s wife, the title of this work is Standing Farmer (Staande boer). An identical head and profile feature in a watercolor by Kruyder from ca. 1923, Masks or “Suspicion” (Maskers of “Wantrouwen”) , from which the face in this sculpture perhaps takes its green color. This gives the face a mask-like quality, partly because of the red in which the iris, nose and mouth have been painted.