The Bow (1956)

Frederico Carasso

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photo Jannes Linders

photo Jannes Linders

photo Otto Snoek

photo Otto Snoek

design in 1956

design in 1956

Frederico Carasso’s studio

Frederico Carasso’s studio

detail

detail

Frederico Carasso’s studio

Frederico Carasso’s studio

photo Tim van der Post, collection Stadsarchief Rotterdam CC BY 4.0

photo Tim van der Post, collection Stadsarchief Rotterdam CC BY 4.0

The artwork

In memory of the victims who fell at sea during World War II, Frederico Carasso created this National Monument to the Merchant Marine. It consists of a 46-meter-high stylized ship’s bow that cleaves concrete waves. In 1965, the sculpture group was added to the base of the monument. On the base of the monument are the words ‘zij hielden koers’ (‘they held course’).

A chalk drawing from around 1950 is an initial study for The Bow. It shows an abstract image in which various angular and round shapes are stacked and interlaced. An elongated triangle towers above it in height. The sculpture looks like a playful collage of shapes, here and there evoking associations with a ship, such as a bow, waves and a steam pipe. Carasso sketched the sculpture on the quay; one of the bridges over the river Maas comes ashore under the sculpture.

The final design is from 1956: a wooden sculpture 230 cm high finished with metal tape. The model was purchased at auction in 2005 by the local historical museum, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Maritime Museum for 18,000 euros. This sculpture is much tighter and simpler in form than the first study. It was executed as designed and in 1957 The Bow was unveiled on the quay of the Leuvehaven. Like the bow of a ship, an aluminum column rises 46 meters above the angular waves of concrete. The sculpture is much harder in line than the study of the early 1950s. Above all, it expresses the perseverance and tenacity of sailors.

Even before its unveiling, there was much discussion about the statue. The National Monument to the Merchant Navy Foundation asked Carasso to “make the human element more prominent”. It would take some time for the foundation and the artist to agree on what form the human should take. It wasn’t until 1965 that the sculpture group was added at the base of the monument. The group consists of a helmsman, three sailors and a drowned man tied to each other and to part of a ship by a rope. Close together, they are fighting against the water. Beside the high waves and the bow towering above them, the figures nevertheless appear somewhat insignificant.

Year
1956
Location
Boompjeskade
Dimensions
height 46 m
Material
aluminium and bronze
Client
Stichting Herrijzend Rotterdam
Owner
Gemeente Rotterdam

The location

After the liberation, the initiative came from the Rotterdam shipping industry to erect a monument in memory of the sailors who perished during World War II. During the war, ships of the Dutch Merchant Navy carried soldiers and supplies for England and Russia. Submarines and planes attacked the ships. A total of 421 ships perished and 3375 people died.

The desire for a monument in Rotterdam was included in the plan of the National War Memorial Commission, which directed the funding and implementation of Dutch war memorials. A working committee would submit a design to the National Monument to the Merchant Navy Foundation. In December 1950, sculptors Carasso, Couzijn, Reyers and Roosenburg and architects Boks and Peutzen were invited to submit a design. The commission was to express both the suffering and sacrifice and the perseverance of the Merchant Navy in the monument. In late 1952, the jury (which included J.C. Ebbinge Wubben of Museum Boijmans and A.M. Hammacher of Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller) chose Willem Reijers’ Ruggegraat design as the winner and Couzijn’s design as the runner-up. But there was criticism of this choice both from the public and in the opinion magazines; Reijers’ design was said to be too abstract and incomprehensible. The foundation eventually chose Frederico Carasso’s monumental design.

The location on the Leuvehaven has no direct relationship to merchant shipping during the war years. In the past the Leuvehaven was indeed an important port for merchant shipping, but after the construction of the Nieuwe Leuvebrug in 1849 it was impossible for large ships to enter this port. During the war, the area around the Leuvehaven was largely destroyed. The Bow towered high above the surroundings at the time of its unveiling, but it is much less prominent in today’s streetscape.

Frederico Carasso

Frederico Carasso

Frederico Carasso (Turijn, 1899 – Amsterdam, 1969) was the son of a furniture maker. When the furniture factory went bankrupt in 1913, he went to work in the Fiat factory. In 1916, he was drafted into military service, and remained in North Africa for several years. The oppression of the local population there, and the social problems in Italy shaped his political views, and he became a member of the Communist party. When Mussolini came to power in 1922, he was forced to leave the country for political reasons. In Paris, he worked at a furniture manufacturer, and was trained as a traditional craftsman. In 1928, his political activism once again forced him to leave the country, and he moved to Belgium, where he earned a living as a woodcutter and joined the avant-garde and Surrealism movements. His activism was not appreciated in Belgium either, and he was expelled from the country in 1933.

In 1934, he settled in Amsterdam. Although there were problems with his residence permit, thanks to his highly valued work for Michels Wasfiguren en Installatiemagazijn, he was able to remain in the Netherlands. After several years, he became a member of the Dutch Society of Sculptors where he came in contact with many colleagues. In 1938, he had his first solo exposition in the Netherlands at Galerie Robert in Amsterdam, which dedicated a great deal of space to surrealistic works. The reviews in the newspapers were full of praise, and Carasso instantly made a name for himself. He was able to devote all of his time to art in 1945. After the war, he played an important role in the re-organisation of the Nederlandse Kring van Beeldhouwers (Dutch Society of Sculptors). His active role in the resistance also garnered him a great deal of respect and influence.

In 1947, he was asked to design a sculpture for the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, in memory of the fallen athletes. It was an enormous figure of a man holding a torch, and was entitled Prometheus. At the time, this huge sculpture was the largest in the Netherlands. Various monuments to the resistance followed, for the Municipality of Dreumel, Philips in Eindhoven, and the Municipality of Sprang-Kapelle. In 1953, a second commission from Philips followed; a sun dial which aimed to depict the company’s growth and progress. In the early 1950s, the contest to design the National Monument for the Merchant Navy was held, and Carasso ultimately placed as one of the winners. Although he was not chosen as the first place winner by the judges, his design received the most applause from the press and the general public. Not long after this, a retrospective of his work was shown at the Rotterdamsche Kunstkring (Rotterdam Art Society) in 1953.

At the time, Italian sculpture was gaining in popularity, and Carasso wrote several articles about it in De Kroniek and Apollo. Commissioned by the NKB, he travelled to Italy to establish contacts and study the possibility of an exchange programme. In 1954, he wrote the foreword for the Mostra exhibition at the Rotterdamsche Kunstkring, which was dedicated exclusively to Italian art. In 1958, he was one of the judges at the Sonsbeek exhibition where he was responsible for the selection of Italian works. He did not appreciate the developments within the world of sculpture without reservations, however. In 1953, with his article De knuppel in het Hoenderhok; published in De Kroniek he discussed the increasing conflict between realism and abstraction in sculpture. His commentary on the work of artists such as Ossip Zadkine was not appreciated. In spite of his objections to abstract art, his own work became less realistic during the 1950s. Figures became more stylised and angular. The subject, however, always remained recognisable. During the 1960s, his work once again became more realistic, and the shapes were more rounded.

Carasso is primarily known as being a sculptor. In addition, he also created works on paper, in a variety of styles and techniques. These works vary from colourful and cheerful gouaches to darker pastel drawings, pen and ink drawings and collages. The subjects range from illustrations to cartoons. The collages and pen and ink drawings in particular are sometimes absurd and mocking in tone. The oppression by fascism and colonialism are topics which also appear frequently. In 1956, Carasso was appointed as a professor of sculpture at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht as the successor to Oscar Jespers. In spite of the fact that he was no longer a member of the vanguard, he still remained a successful sculptor with plenty of commissions and exhibitions.

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