Bather

History of the work

On the Bundesterrasse in front of the Federal Palace, a bronze female nude stands in an ornamental pool. It is the 'Badende' (Bather) by Hermann Hubacher, made in 1923. The Swiss artists' lexicon SIKART lists it among his works as a fountain figure on the terrace in front of the Federal Palace; Wikidata describes it as a bronze sculpture in the terrace's ornamental pond.

According to SIKART, the free-standing female figure was, besides the portrait bust, the sculptor's main subject. From the mid-1920s into the 1940s Hubacher's work matched the taste of the time, and SIKART places his sculpture stylistically between Aristide Maillol and Auguste Rodin. The motif stayed with him for a long time: a 'Grosse Badende' (Large Bather) of 1938 stands in the Stadtgarten in Winterthur, and Wikipedia mentions a 'Badende II' of 1951 in a private collection in Zurich.

Hubacher was born in Biel on 1 August 1885, the son of an engraver. From 1900 to 1905 he trained as an engraver, medallist and goldsmith at the Technikum in Biel, then continued his training in Geneva and Vienna before deciding on sculpture. In the studio of James Vibert in Geneva he met Ferdinand Hodler. According to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland he had his own studio in Bern from 1910 to 1916 and lived in Zurich from 1916; SIKART gives 1917 for the move, Wikipedia 1918.

According to the dictionary, this was also when his friendship with the Winterthur patron Oskar Reinhart began. From 1926 to 1929 Hubacher sat on the Federal Art Commission, and in 1938 he received an international prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale. He died in Zurich on 18 November 1976. On site, take a look at the pool: SIKART explicitly lists the bronze as a fountain figure.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Hermann Hubacher · HLS: Hubacher, Hermann (Tapan Bhattacharya) · Wikipedia (de): Hermann Hubacher · Wikidata: Badende (Q84047418) · Wikimedia Commons: Bronzeplastik Badende (Hermann Hubacher 1923)