Two Children

History of the work

Above the entrance area of the Markus school at Weingartstrasse 18, a school scene is scratched into the plaster: two children, according to Wikidata a girl and a boy, together with a dog. Wikidata gives the sgraffito's size as about 4.50 by 3.50 metres; it dates from 1956. In sgraffito, layers of differently coloured plaster are scratched away in places so that the colour underneath shows through.

The school belongs to a complex for which a competition was held in 1946: a church with a small school and two kindergartens on the Wankdorffeld. The winners of the first two prizes, Karl Müller and Henry Daxelhofer, continued the planning together. The city's building inventory dates the school buildings to 1953/54, while a report by the city executive gives 1952 for the school and 1954 for the kindergartens. Together with the neighbouring Markus Church they form a single ensemble.

During the most recent renovation and extension a restorer examined the picture. According to the report to the city parliament it was in surprisingly good condition and did not need restoration. The new art for the building, two wall paintings by Julian Burkhard on the end walls of the pavilions, deliberately refers to Stein's sgraffito according to the city's construction leaflet; the parliamentary report spells the name Burkhardt. A fountain by Max Fueter on the church forecourt dates from the same year, 1956.

Peter Stein was born in Burgdorf on 3 July 1922 and died on 7 August 2015 in Muri near Bern. He trained as a drawing teacher in Basel, learned stained-glass painting with Paul Wüthrich and attended Max von Mühlenen's painting school. From 1956 he designed many stained-glass windows in Burgdorf and Bern. According to SIKART, Stein dated the start of his valid oeuvre to the non-representational picture 'Roter Schleier' (Red Veil) of 1957; in 1980 he took part in the Venice Biennale. The figurative sgraffito on Weingartstrasse was thus made one year before this turn.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Tellstrasse 27, 29 / Weingartstrasse 18 · Stadt Bern, Stadtratsvortrag Sanierung und Erweiterung Volksschule Markus · Stadt Bern, Bauflyer Volksschule Markus (2022) · SIKART: Peter Stein · Wikidata: Zwei Kinder · Wikimedia Commons: Sgraffito Zwei Kinder