Banner Bearer

History of the work

On the side wall of the Brunnerhaus facing Hotelgasse, only a few steps from the Zytglogge clock tower, Ernst Linck painted a large standard-bearer in 1906. Wikidata lists a lansquenet, a banner and a bear as its subjects and gives the spelling 'Bannersträger' as its official name.

For Linck the picture was an early commission rather than the peak of his career. According to an article by the Swiss National Library, it opened the way to colourful decorations of Bernese churches and to church windows. In 1913 he painted, for the banking hall of the former Spar- und Leihkasse on Bundesplatz, the fresco 'Agriculture – Trade – Industry'. At an exhibition of wall and glass painting at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1929 Linck showed 31 works, among them sketches for the standard-bearer.

Linck was born in Windisch in 1874 and trained as a decorative painter in Zurich. From 1899 he lived permanently in Bern, led a painting school of his own until 1912 and taught life drawing at the school of applied arts, from 1906 according to SIKART, from as early as 1904 according to Wikipedia. The SIKART lexicon counts him among the so-called Bernese school of painters, which followed the style of Ferdinand Hodler. He also painted the historic fountains of Bern and refreshed the pictures by the Master of the Carnation in the main portal of the Minster. Linck died in Bern in 1935.

Little of his public work in the city survives: both the Kursaal and the Variété Corso have been pulled down, and the paintings in the bank were removed during a refurbishment in the 1970s. The standard-bearer remained, and in 1929 Linck restored it himself. His archive at the National Library holds a photograph showing him with other men on scaffolding while painting the facade. According to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, the architect Karl Indermühle renovated and extended the building itself. Looking closely, you can also find Linck's signature on the painting, which Wikidata records separately.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek: The eternal standard-bearer (Gerry Fässler) · Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek: Ernst Linck archive · HelveticArchives: Ernst Linck vor dem Bannerträger (Fotografie) · SIKART: Ernst Linck (Michael Baumgartner) · Wikipedia (de): Ernst Linck · HLS: Karl Indermühle (Anne-Marie Biland) · Wikidata: Bannerträger (Q64852213) · Wikimedia Commons: Wandmalerei Bannerträger (Ernst Linck 1906)