Mother and Child

History of the work

On a lawn on Bürenstrasse a bronze group stands on a base of stacked stone slabs. A woman kneels, leaning slightly forward; in front of her stands a small, naked child raising its arms towards her, and she holds one of its hands. A dense hedge grows behind the group. The City of Bern's inventory gives the title „Mutter und Kind“ and the year 1954.

Who commissioned the figure and why it stands in this spot is not stated in the sources consulted. The houses around it date from the post-war years: the building inventory lists pairs of apartment buildings from around 1950 on Bürenstrasse and the Schönau kindergarten of 1957 and 1958 on the edge of the Bürenpark.

Gustave Piguet was born in Interlaken on 19 February 1909 and died on 12 December 1976. The Swiss artists' lexicon SIKART describes him briefly as a sculptor focusing on art for buildings and public space. The city's building inventory shows how busy he was in Bern in the post-war years: for the Petruskirche he made, in 1951, reliefs with scenes from the story of the apostle Peter in the porch, as well as the pulpit and communion table with reliefs and inscriptions. Figurative wall sculptures on the radio studio on Schwarztorstrasse are by him, probably from 1948. On Keltenstrasse stands a male figure in bronze from 1950, and for the funeral hall of the Bremgarten cemetery he designed capitals and bronze doors from 1955 onwards. At the entrance to the dental clinics of the Inselspital there is a bronze sculpture by him from 1954, the same year as the group on Bürenstrasse.

When you visit, look at the hands: the mother's hand and the child's raised arms bind the two figures into one group.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART Lexikon: Gustave Piguet · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Brunnadernstrasse 40 (Petruskirche) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Schwarztorstrasse 21 (Radiostudio) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Keltenstrasse 25–27a · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Murtenstrasse 49–55a (Bremgartenfriedhof) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Freiburgstrasse 7 (Inselspital, Zahnmedizin) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bürenstrasse 7–25 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bürenstrasse 26 (Kindergarten Schönau) · Wikimedia Commons: Foto des Werks (Ansicht)