Johan en Cornelis de Witt - Dordrecht, The Netherlands - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

The statue of the De Witt brothers is a 20th-century memorial in the city of Dordrecht, in the Dutch province of South Holland. The statue was erected in memory of raadpensionaris Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis de Witt.

Background
Johan (Jan) de Witt (Dordrecht, 1625 - The Hague 1672), lord of Zuid- and Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp and IJsselvere, was advisory pensionary of the county of Holland for nineteen years during the First Stadtholders' Era and thus the most important politician of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. His brother Cornelis (Dordrecht, 1623 - The Hague 1672) was, among other things, ruwaard van de Heerlijkheid Putten, baljuw van de Beijerlanden and mayor of Dordrecht. On August 20, 1672, the De Witt brothers were assassinated in The Hague.

After a committee was formed in 1902 to erect a monument to Stadholder William III, voices regularly arose to erect a statue to Johan de Witt, and in 1913 two committees were formed, one to erect a statue to Johan in The Hague and one to erect a monument to the De Witt brothers in Dordrecht. Chairman of the Dordrecht committee was Baron Sweerts de Landas Wyborgh, Queen's Commissioner. Both committees decided to work together. Donations that came in without further destination would be divided equally between the committees. Queen Mother Emma gave a contribution to both committees.

In late 1915 it was announced that the commission for the statue in Dordrecht had been awarded to sculptor Toon Dupuis. His design was exhibited in the Town Hall in September 1917.[4] Dupuis depicted the raadpensionaris seated, with his brother standing. The statue was cast in bronze at the Delft foundry N.V. F.W. Braat. The sandstone frame was designed by architect Dirk Roosenburg and executed at Steenhouwerij vh Kooy in The Hague.

On June 12, 1918, the statue of Johan de Witt, by Fré Jeltsema, was unveiled on the Plaats in The Hague. The unveiling in Dordrecht took place a few months later, on August 20, 1918, the day the brothers were murdered. Prof. Dr. Brugmans delivered a speech in the Waal church, after which the statue was handed over to the municipality by chairman Baron Sweerts de Landas Wyborgh and accepted with thanks by mayor Hillebrand Jacob Wichers,

Description
The naturalistic, bronze statue depicts the brothers in 17th-century attire. Johan wears a kalot on his head and sits on a chair. His brother Cornelis leans against the chair and holds a walking stick in his left hand. Below the statue is the coat of arms of the De Witt family, with the names of both brothers.

View of the statue with the sandstone frame.
The bronze statue stands on a pedestal and is framed by a higher rising, rising center section. On either side is a wall with corner isles and chamfered corners, both sides displaying a quote from the satire Palamedes (1625) by Joost van den Vondel:

OP DEN HEER EN MEESTER JOHAN DE WITT
RAADPENSIONARIS VAN HOLLANDT
ZYN DOOT, ALT' ONVERDIENT, ZAL HOLLANDT EEUWIG SMARTEN
HY STORF VOOR 'T VADERLAND, EEN MARTELAER VAN STAET

DE TYT EN HEEFT NOOIT WECHGENOMEN
DEN NAEM EN 'T OVERSCHOT DER VROMEN
WANT NA DAT ZY ZYN OVERLEEN
ZO BLINKT HUN DEUCHT VOOR IEDER EEN

Appreciation
The memorial was included in the Register of Monuments in 2001 as a national monument because of its cultural-historical, architectural-historical and art-historical value and urban planning value. "The monument has cultural-historical value as an example of a memorial monument from the first quarter of the twentieth century, reflecting the revived attention to important figures in patriotic history, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The monument has architural-historical and art-historical value as an example in the development of monumental sculpture in the Netherlands, and because of the combination of naturalism and a special, monumental architectural setting. The monument has ensemble and urban planning value because of its coherence with its surroundings, as part of the historic buildings in the Old Town and because of its special location. The monument is also of importance because of its recognizability and flawlessness."
Source: wikipedia
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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