Joy of Life

History of the work

On the lawn south of the Wilhelm-Fabry-Haus, formerly the Anna-Seiler-Haus, stands the bronze sculpture 'Lebensfreude' (Joy of Life) by Max Fueter, dated 1957. According to the Inselspital's leaflet on the Inselpark, it was a gift from the city of Bern. The artists' lexicon SIKART names it as one of the works in which the beautiful body stands for Fueter's ideal image of humanity.

The building behind was built in 1951–1953 to designs by Otto Brechbühl. According to the building inventory, the patients' rooms in the ward wing face south onto the park, with the service rooms to the north. The garden was designed by Franz Vogel senior in the so-called 'living garden' style: he had the ground raised by up to two metres to create a level lawn and relied on rich perennial beds whose flowering was meant to comfort the sick. The garden has been unchanged since 1954. In 2022 the building was named after the surgeon Wilhelm Fabry, because the new main building took over Anna Seiler's name.

According to SIKART, Fueter (1898–1983) grew up in the Burgher Orphanage in Bern from 1907 to 1914 and moved into his first studio in 1918; in the same year he showed a boy's head at the opening exhibition of the Kunsthalle Bern. He later worked in Berlin and, on a scholarship, in Rome, lived in Wabern until 1955 and in 1954 built a wooden studio on Goumoënsstrasse in Bern. The human figure remained his subject; well-known examples are the 'Discus Thrower' at the Marzili baths and the 'Great Pan' by the Aare.

SIKART also notes that Fueter's figures lost topicality when the avant-garde, with Walter Linck, Mariann Grunder and Bernhard Luginbühl, gained a foothold in Bern in the 1950s. On the Engländerhubel this change can be seen: a few steps away, in front of the Lory hospital, stands a tuff sculpture by Grunder from 1970, and in the garden west of the building the bronze figure 'Die Sinnende' by Eleonore von Mülinen.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Max Fueter (Johanna Strübin Rindisbacher) · Wikipedia (de): Max Fueter · Inselspital, Direktion Infrastruktur: Flyer Inselpark (2018) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Freiburgstrasse 41C (Anna-Seiler-Haus, heute Freiburgstrasse 37) · Insel Gruppe: Medienmitteilung zu den Gebäudenamen auf dem Insel-Areal (28. März 2022) · Wikimedia Commons: Bronzeplastik Lebensfreude (Max Fueter 1957)