Paul Kruger relief

A copper relief plaque of the bust of Paul Kruger (1925) by the South African artist Anton van Wouw (1862-1945). In 1925, Van Wouw made this plaque to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Paul Kruger. Paul Kruger (1825-1904) was the last President of the South African Republic which seized to exist after the South African War (1899-1902). Kruger was a figure which Van Wouw sculpted numerous times. This small plaque was cast by the foundry John Galizia in London in the 1930s. Short biography: Anton van Wouw was born on 26 December 1862 in Driebergen in the Netherlands. After school, Van Wouw began as a stucco worker in Delft where he learnt the art of sculpture. He studied at the Rotterdam Academy for Arts, but stopped his studies to join his father and brother in South Africa. After having a hard time as an artist in the early beginnings of his career of the then Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic 1852-1902) Van Wouw was finally recognised for his work when Sammy Marks (1884-1920), a Lithuanian-born South African industrialist and financier, commissioned Van Wouw to create the famous Kruger Memorial, currently situated on Church Square in the centre of South Africa's Capital city Pretoria. From there, Van Wouw's art went from strength to strength creating over 10 large bronze monuments, as well as more than 100 other sculptures in his lifetime. Anton van Wouw passed away in Pretoria in 1945.