Next to the nude, the mask has a very important place within the oeuvre of John Rädecker. Influenced by primitive forms from African, Asian and Egyptian arts and Medieval architectural sculpture, his most successful masks are expressions of a closed, inner symbolism, surrounded by a certain vegetated indolence. Their frame of mind is indeterminate and they seem to exist only for themselves. They give expression to a reality behind a reality. These masks were mainly constructed with broad lips, eyes closed and lying deep or opened widely, placed far from each other, dreamy in appearance. They can be at the same time threatening and protecting.
Sculptor Theo van Rijn states on the masks by Rädecker in 1949: "Rädecker is a natural talent, absorbing innocently and transforming things into his own vision. He is receptive like a child, naive rather than aware. I am not looking for elements of genius in him at all, for that implies an awareness and a clear understanding of everything, and above all I am not looking for innocence, but I do want to see him as a visionnair.
His mask-faces are full of sultry floating, natural senses, enclosing the secrets of life: sometimes his female faces are completely plunged into a quiet life of dreams. They breath an unwary joie de vivre, when nature has come to peace, and they are delivered to the growing and decline of the dream of life.
In their understanding of reality, they can only live quietly and grow to full stature. A natural and independent growth, a radiation of frozen beauty. It is exactly this in which we feel Rädecker's miracles and experiences of life. Uncomplaining in sadness, in desire, in joy and of great peacefulness". (cf.lit. Th. van Rijn, Nederlandse beeldhouwers, Amsterdam-Brussels 1946, p.35)
Characteristic for many of Rädecker's masks is the diagonal positioning on the plinth, also present under this mask. Other casts can be found in the Kröller Müller Museum in Otterloo, the Haags Gemeente Museum in The Hague and the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven.