Air and Water (Society for Medal Art 1934, first medal)

After Tjipke Visser in 1930 the board gave a free commission to the Rotterdam sculptor Bolle; a tradition that has continued to this day. The front and reverse are entirely equal. With the theme 'air and water' Bolle set to work; a bird for the air and fish for the water. The air is accentuated by a small boat at the bottom of the plane, the water by a small boat at the top of the plane. Especially the bird - possibly Baudelaire's Albatross as a symbol for the flight of the poetic imagination - is spatially beautifully resolved: the wings go with the circle and give an impression of floating lightness where the idea of space and distance is offered by a boat in the background. The fish are even more naturalistic than the bird. A stylizing - and thus dating - element are the ripples on the water and the air bubbles. Fish are a popular subject in the Jugendstil; and a theme explored in the Netherlands by the painter Dijsselhof.