Swan Fountain (Schwanenbrunnen)

History of the work

Where Schwanengasse joins Bundesgasse, a fountain with a bronze swan stands in front of the building at Schwanengasse 11. The City of Bern lists it as the 'Schwanenbrunnen' (Swan Fountain) by Heinz Schwarz from 1956. Wikimedia Commons calls it the Schwanengasse fountain and says 'Schwanenbrunnen' is the colloquial name. Commons also notes that the swan now crouches but originally stood, and names Energie Wasser Bern as its operator.

The backdrop is a residential and commercial building of 1873/74. According to the building inventory it was designed by the architect Gottlieb Hebler for the Second Bern Building Society; the row on the north side of Bundesgasse is considered his main work. The four-storey neo-Renaissance facade has a central section with portal, balcony and segmental pediment. It stands on the axis of Wallgasse and closes off that lane when seen from Hirschengraben.

Schwarz was born in Arbon on 2 July 1920 and grew up in Gerlafingen and Solothurn. After an apprenticeship as a lithographer in Aarau he turned to sculpture, which according to Wikipedia he largely taught himself; he also learned from Karl Geiser in Zurich and from Jakob Probst. From 1943 he lived in Geneva. The artists' lexicon SIKART describes him as a sculptor and draughtsman of female nudes, portraits and animals, and of art for public space.

In the year of the swan, 1956, Schwarz received a federal art grant for the third time, after 1949 and 1952. He became known above all in Geneva: for the sculpture 'L'adolescent et le cheval' (The Youth and the Horse) of 1976 on the lakeside promenade and for the figure 'Clémentine' on the Place du Bourg-de-Four. In 1978 he received the art prize of the Canton of Solothurn, and in 1992 the Kunstmuseum Solothurn held a retrospective. He died in Satigny on 12 August 1994.

On site, look at the animal's posture: the swan crouches over the water, not in the pose in which it was first set up.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Heinz Schwarz · Wikipedia (de): Heinz Schwarz (Bildhauer) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Schwanengasse 11 · Wikimedia Commons: Schwanengasse-Brunnen (Schwan – Heinz Schwarz 1956)