Siem (Simon) van den Hoonaard (1900 - 1938 ) was a goldsmith .
Born in Benthuizerstraat, on the border of Rotterdam and the then independent municipality of Hillegersberg. After his daily work as a jewelry maker, Van den Hoonaard attended the evening course at the Academy of Visual Arts and Technical Sciences in Rotterdam, where he not only stood out but went on to receive the gold medal for crafts. On April 26, 1928, the Van den Hoonaards returned to Hillegersberg, where he established himself as an independent designer and visual artist.
He designed and made both small jewelry, utensils, and plastic wares. Jos de Gruyter, the late director of the Groninger Museum, noticed a sculptural mask of in 1932, praising it via a report in the daily newspaper Het Vaderland. That mask is perhaps Hoonaard's best-known work; it is now in the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Van den Hoonaard was also one of the artists who contributed to the beautification of the passenger ship the New Amsterdam of the transatlantic Holland-America Line.
In August 1940, the Rotterdam circle of visual artists R 33, with whom he worked closely, wrote to the Hillegersberg town council that they would like to establish for hr late S. van den Hoonaard “a memorial in the place of his birth and residence."
