Kees Jansen - little Paul - Sold

Anyone growing up in Dongen can hardly miss Kees Jansen: his bronzes stand at the school, the church, and the town hall. Those living in the Achterhoek also find it difficult to ignore his oeuvre in public spaces. Cornelis PMA Jansen, known to everyone as Kees, was born in Dongen in 1946 and passed away on August 10, 2026, in Doetinchem. His love for the craft began at home: he carved puppet show puppets from wood, first with a pocket knife, later with a chisel and gouge. Because he felt a trade needed to be learned, he studied construction engineering at the technical college, but the construction industry proved too restrictive. He transferred to the Art Academy in Tilburg and subsequently to the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam—which he found just as stifling after a few years—after which he settled in Dongen as an independent sculptor. Later, he moved to Gendringen in Gelderland. He worked almost always in bronze, with animals and human figures as subjects, and his work is characterized by simplicity, poetry, and imagination. The vast majority consists of commissioned work for public spaces, from the Polderpioniers in Dronten (1977) to Grol 1627 in Groenlo (2008). His most famous sculpture is the Sow with a Litter of Piglets, unveiled in June 1979 on the forecourt of the Brabant Provincial House in Den Bosch, a gift from the NCB pig farmers on their tenth anniversary. It brought him great fame—and a long ordeal: the piglets were stolen time and again starting in 1998, and in October 2022 the sow also disappeared. Because the molds no longer exist, restoration is impossible; since 2024, the three remaining piglets have stood in the Butterfly Garden at the Provincial House, with a plaque telling the story. Other work in public space: Playing Children (Tilburg, 1980), The World of the Child (Dongen, 1980), Harlequin (Oss, 1981), Talking Women (Zevenbergen, 1981), Fountain Sculpture (Dongen, 1984), Piglets (Twello, 1999), The Shelter (Dongen, 2007), Little Elephant (Dongen, 2009), Meeting (Dongen), Sculpture of a City (Groenlo), and Dancing Couple (Voorst). In 2007, the monograph *Kees Jansen Sculptor* by Michel van der Vorst was published about his work; he is included in the RKD and in Jacobs, Beeldend Nederland (1993). An oeuvre that you do not need to look for in a museum: it is simply on the street, where it belongs. Naturally, the book about Kees is part of it.