The Destroyed City

The figure holds both hands aloft, with its head thrown back as if crying in grief, and a gaping hole in its chest and abdomen.

It stands on a tapering 2 m (6 ft 7 in) high plinth of Labrador granite blocks (reportedly, the stone had been intended for a sculpture of Adolf Hitler in Berlin).

He was inspired to create the sculpture shortly after the end of the Second World War, probably 1946 or 1947, when his train passed through the ruined centre of Rotterdam while travelling from Paris to visit his friend, the doctor and painter Hendrik Wiegersma [nl], in the Dutch town of Deurne.

Zadkine created a 70 cm (28 in) high model in terracotta, intended as a memorial to the victims of war, which was exhibited in Berlin and Prague in 1947.

The terracotta was damaged in transit, so Zadkine created a new model in plaster about 140 cm (55 in) high, which was exhibited in Brussels and at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1948.

It was presented to the city as an anonymous gift, on condition that its location should be chosen by Zadkine, and it should remain permanently in place; the identity of the donor became known in 1978.