The milkmaid (1938) Han Rehm

photo BKOR archive
About the artwork

This picture The milkmaid was designed in 1938 by the Rotterdam sculptor Han Rehm. Rehm had his studio at 1935 's Gravenweg since 172. Just before the war, he commissioned this statue, but for reasons that are unclear it was never sold. When the artist died in 1970, the plaster cast was still standing in Rehms studio in Kralingen. Because it was too big to place indoors, the artist's son, Frits Rehm, had a bronze cast made and placed it in his own garden in 1980. But the statue had to be given a better and more public place. The Rehm family therefore donated the statue to the Kuyl's Fundatie Foundation, diagonally opposite the former studio. The statue of a tough lady with a milk can in her hand was posted in October 2019.

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About the artist

Artist Han Rehm (Rotterdam, 1908 - Rotterdam, 1970) studied art at the Reading University in England and subsequently studied drawing at the Rotterdam art academy for a short period. Afterwards he studied sculpture at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In 1930 he also went to study sculpture in Vienna. In 1935 he settled in his own studio in Kralingen. In addition to being a sculptor, he was active as a medalist. Among other things, he made a medal for Leiden University (1958). Han Rehm is best known in Rotterdam for his work The load carrier on the Kop van Zuid and the statue of the Olympic athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen in Blijdorp.

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