Three Amsterdam ceramic aesthetes united in artwork 'Platlander'

-Hans de Jong (1932-2011), Amsterdam artist designed and executed the artwork
-JWN Van Achterbergh (1928-2009), art collector / patron and donor
-Mieke Spruit-Ledeboer (1931-2017), PhD candidate and recipient of 'De Platlander'

From 1954 to 1958 Hans de Jong studied at the Institute for Applied Arts Education in Amsterdam, ceramics department. From 1959 he established himself as a ceramist in Amsterdam at Rokin 154-156.

Since 1960 Hans de Jong knew Van Achterbergh and was highly appreciated by him from an artistic point of view. In 1964, on the occasion of the opening of Van Achterbergh's private museum (De Pottenkijker), he made a facade stone. This was then placed next to the door of the museum at Wittenkade 99 in Amsterdam. In 1962 he designed a wall relief for the Amsterdam branch of De Bijenkorf. The name 'De Platlander' came about because the statues were constructed from 'flat' slabs of clay.
Van Achterbergh lived in Amstelveen and went to study at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

His maternal grandfather, Sebastiaan Domhof, partner in the construction company De Vlugt & Domhof, built the Amsterdam Bijenkorf and the Heineken's Brewery, among other things.
Beautiful Amsterdam houses were built in the 1920s by the construction company. Among others on the Eerste and Tweede Nassaukade. At the De Wittenkade 99, also built by Van Achterbergh Sr., there was a beautiful house where his private museum 'De Pottenkijker' was established in 1964.

In 1977, Mieke Spruit-Ledeboer obtained her doctorate from the University of Amsterdam, with the dissertation Ceramics 1900-1975. Not much later, this was published as a book. This is still the standard work, for who-what-where in 20th century ceramics.

Given the above, it is an Amsterdam sculpture, where the Amsterdam influences played a major role in its creation.