The Angel, sculpture in Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Angel is a concrete sculpture standing in an open street setting in Amsterdam, near the building at Blankenstraat 2. It shows a figure with three pairs of wings, and it measures roughly three meters in height, resting on an old factory chimney that serves as its base.
The work was made by Han Richters in 1952 for a parish building opened by the Dutch Reformed congregation on a former oil factory site. Since then, the whole building has taken on the sculpture’s name, linking the present structure to this religious commission.
The sculpture refers to a Bible story in the book of Isaiah, where a six-winged seraph touches a burning coal to the prophet’s lips. A poem by Amsterdam city poet Robert Anker placed near the work compares the spot with the small, poor houses that once stood in this part of the city.
You can view the sculpture easily from the sidewalk on Blankenstraat, with enough space to walk around it and see the wings from different angles. The area is flat and open, so moving close to the base or stepping back for a fuller view is straightforward for most visitors.
The base of the figure is not an ordinary pedestal but the preserved chimney of a former oil factory, reused when the artwork arrived in October 1952. This gives the sculpture a direct connection to the industrial past of the street.
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