My huge monument to the bombing of Rotterdam [in 1940, by the German aircraft], for instance, was the third and final version of this figure. Once the model had been accepted in principle and the scale agreed on, I began working on a new version of it, conceiving it to a great extent in terms of the effects of the changes of lighting in which such a monument would been seen in the open air.

Name of this monument in Dutch: 'De verwoeste Stad' (Destroyed City, 1953). Dialogues – conversations with European Artists at Mid-century, 1990, p. 155