Office building, Lange Voorhout.
It was designed by architect Jo Limburg (1864-1945) and built in 1910 for Martinus Nijhoff publishers and booksellers.
Limburg was an architect from The Hague and responsible for some remarkable buildings in this city, such as Herengracht 9 (1915-1916), Maerlant-Lyceum (1926), the building in which the present day restaurant of the Mauritshuis Museum is (1930), and a few others in which Limburg’s development from a more or less neo-classicist to a more modernist style can be seen.
As a Jew he was forced to go into hiding during World War II. He probably died while in hiding during the Bombing of the Bezuidenhout in 1945.
This particular façade is also a token of the lifelong friendship of Limburg and artist Willem van Konijnenburg (1868-1943) who designed the six remarkable sculptures which decorate the building.
There doesn’t seem to be a particular meaning to the individual figures. (If there is, please tell)
They all look neo-renaissance and they may be connected to thinking, philosophy, wisdom, priesthood, etc. but they carry no attributes as such.
Nowadays only the façade of the building remains as a state monument, the building behind it is new and it accommodates the Onderzoeksraad Voor Veiligheid (OVV; Dutch Safety Board).
© Villa Next Door 2021
All pictures were taken in March 2017.
Bertus Pieters
Façades of The Hague from #72 onwards: https://villanextdoor2.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/
Façades of The Hague #1 – 71: https://villanextdoor.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/
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