Floating Female Figure

History of the work

On the eastern side of section E3 in the Schosshalde cemetery, a bronze statue by Walter Schnegg belongs to a grave. It is titled 'Schwebende weibliche Figur' (Floating female figure) and was made in 1971. The list of Schnegg's works on Wikipedia gives exactly this location. The available sources say nothing about the commission or the size of the figure.

Schnegg was born in Köniz on 7 November 1903 and died in Bern on 20 June 1990; his place of citizenship was Meikirch. SIKART describes him as a sculptor, modeller and painter who made mainly nudes and animals as well as fountain figures. His path to sculpture was long: he first learned a trade in metalworking, then trained as a sculptor. Courses at the school of applied arts in Bern followed, a period as a volunteer with a stonemason, studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva and at two academies in Paris, and stays in Stuttgart, Munich and Italy.

Schnegg's work is visible in many places around Bern. It includes the Rehbrunnen (deer fountain) in Stapfenacker and the 'Erdbeer-Mareili' (strawberry girl) in Breitfeld, both from 1946, the bear with the Aarberg coat of arms of 1952 above the entrance to the Aarbergerhof on Aarbergergasse, and the fox fountain in Weissenbühl of 1954. In 1970 he made the two-part bronze with Johannes Gutenberg and a young typesetter on the outer wall of Falkenplatz 11. Four years after the 'Floating figure' he made a crouching female figure for the burial field for premature babies in the Bümpliz cemetery.

In 1976 the publisher Haupt in Bern issued the picture book 'Figürliches Gestalten' (Figurative design) about his work. The figure in E3 is a late work by a sculptor who was then nearly seventy and whose fountain figures can be found in several Bern neighbourhoods.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Stadt Bern: Kunstwerke im öffentlichen Raum (opendata.swiss) · SIKART: Walter Schnegg · Wikipedia (de): Walter Schnegg · bildfundgrube.net: Walter Schnegg (Lebenslauf von Hans Stucki) · Stadtgrün Bern: Broschüre Schosshaldenfriedhof (2023) · Wikimedia Commons: Foto