Tjipke Visser

Dutch sculptor Tjipke Visser first attended a school for drawing teachers and then studied in Amsterdam at the Academy of Fine Arts. He started sculpting in 1902 while working as a drawing teacher in Edam. As a sculptor, he was largely self-taught. In 1908, he was the first artist who settled in the North Frisian village of Bergen and influenced significantly the development of the “Bergen School”, an association of local artists. At times he had another studio in Paris to study bronze casting and metalworking. He worked as a sculptor, potter, book designer, and painter. During World War I he produced animal and symbolic figures, after the war masks and grave monuments and medallions. His daughter Marijcke became a sculptor, and also worked as a goldsmith.

Visser’s catalog raisonné lists two bronze figures titled Diving Girl for the year 1936. Three casts were made of both. One version is shown in the catalog of art competitions. Four copies were made of the bronze Running Girl from 1933.