Realism in the city 2/2

I find those street murals so nice I thought I shared them all with you! I only spotted four houses in total in this small neighborhood displaying the murals from Hermanus Berserik (see yesterday's post). Click on the photo to display it large.

Realism in the city

Everybody in The Hague knows the wall paintings situated on the back of a couple of houses next to The Hague HS train station. They have been painted by Hermanus Berserik (1921-2002), a local artist, member of the Royal academy of Arts, who lived in this neighborhood as a child. His paintings were very realistic; still lifes with nostalgic subjects, selfportraits, landscapes.

Out of the window

Walking in "Om en Bij", I was passing by this house when my eyes caught up this model out of the window on the top floor. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see it better! It did give me an odd feeling to see it there like he was watching the passers-by.

"Om en Bij" is a very nice string of dead end streets in the Schilderswijk district in the centre. The name comes from a a nice cottage house with a cupola, that people used to call "Om en Bij" (a bit similar to the one in Clingendael); around it, farmlands. This house was sold around 1810, and 40 years later, 120 very small working-class houses are built around inner courtyards. It looks extremely charming,

Nicest shopwindow of The Hague

This is the very nice shopfront of the Zwennes family business. It is since 1905 located on the Brouwersgracht. The unique glass fronts are the work of an old glazier, De Wolf (set up in 1843, bankrupt in 1966). The bricks on the facade are entirely covered with glass, advertising for stoves, heaters, cookers, kitchen articles, but also prams and buggies (see the drawings)!

Dirty canal

Here the bridge along the Hooftskade/Zuidwal canal in the Schilderswijk district of The Hague. Enlarge the photo and see how many plastic bottles are floating in the water....

This corner of the Hague represents a third of the city centre and was originally developed following strong demand in cheaper housing at the end of the XIX century (the population of the Hague grew between 1875 and 1900 from 100.000 to more than 200.000 inhabitants). Now, nearly 90% of the people leaving in this part are Turks, Moroccans or from Surinam and Dutch Antilles and this district is one of the poorest ones in the country...