Female and Male Figure

History of the work

On a grave monument in section C2 of the Schosshalde cemetery stand two bronze statues by Max Fueter, a female and a male figure. The city's register dates them to 1973. Fueter was then 75; a year earlier his 'Lebensbrunnen' (Fountain of life) on the Grosse Schanze in front of the university had been completed. The available sources say nothing about the commission or dimensions of the grave figures.

Fueter was born on 6 March 1898, in Bern according to SIKART, in Konolfingen according to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland and Wikipedia. From 1907 to 1914 he grew up in the Burgerliches Waisenhaus, the orphanage of Bern's burgher community, took his school-leaving exam at the Literargymnasium and from 1918 attended the trade school. In the same year he moved into his first studio at Murtenstrasse 37 and showed a boy's head at the opening exhibition of the Kunsthalle Bern. From 1926 to 1929 he worked in Berlin, then with a grant in Rome, and until 1955 in Wabern. He died in Bern on 29 September 1983.

According to SIKART, the human figure remained his subject throughout his life. Bern has many of his works: the 'Diskuswerfer' (Discus thrower) in the Marzili baths, the 'Flötenspieler' (Flute player) at the conservatory from 1940, the figure fountain in the town hall and the 'Grosser Pan' by the Aare. In 1944 he made the bust of Theodor Kocher in the Kocherpark. According to SIKART, portrait heads and busts make up about half of his work.

An early work by Fueter stands in the same cemetery: the 'Kniende' (Kneeling woman) of 1931 at the deaconesses' burial ground, a female figure offering a bowl. Together with the two bronzes of 1973 in C2, the beginning and end of a long career can be seen side by side here.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Stadt Bern: Kunstwerke im öffentlichen Raum (opendata.swiss) · SIKART: Max Fueter · HLS: Max Fueter · Wikipedia (de): Max Fueter · Stadtgrün Bern: Broschüre Schosshaldenfriedhof (2023) · Wikimedia Commons: Foto