John Rädecker is best known as the creator of the National Monument on Dam Square in Amsterdam, which he worked on together with his brother Anton. Yet this famous work only partly reflects his broad and impressive oeuvre.

Rädecker studied at various academies, including those in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and achieved his first breakthrough at an early age, around 1910. However, his true recognition as an innovative artist came only after the First World War. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was regarded as the leading Dutch sculptor of his time.

His work is often associated with the Amsterdam School and the Bergen School, where he settled in 1914. His sculptures and drawings are characterised by powerful forms, strong lines, and intense expressiveness. They have a direct, almost confrontational presence that deeply affects the viewer.

After the Second World War, he grew into an almost mythical figure within Dutch sculpture, admired by later generations of artists and widely recognised as one of the great innovators of his craft.

The work we are offering, lot number 2565, is a bronze sculpture with a brown patina, titled “Mask.” Created in the early 1920s, it is a perfect example of the intense expressiveness described above.