Cats and Hens Making Music

History of the work

On the south-west outer wall of the house at Langobardenstrasse 19, facing Bethlehemstrasse, there is a sgraffito of 1950: cats and hens making music. Wikidata gives its size as five metres high and four metres wide. According to Commons the picture is not signed; it is by Hans Fischer, who was known by the short name 'fis'.

The house belongs to the Meienegg estate of the family housing cooperative of Bern (FAMBAU), founded in 1945. Hans and Gret Reinhard planned it in 1947 and 1948, and it was built in stages between 1949 and 1955. According to the building inventory, the block at Langobardenstrasse 15–19 with its attached kindergarten marks the main entrance to the estate, together with a flagpole. An urban design study by the city and the cooperative from 2018 states that FAMBAU intends to replace the estate with a new development; two expert reports on its heritage value reached sharply different conclusions in 2014. The sources do not say what will happen to the mural.

Hans Fischer was born in Bern in 1909. He studied in Geneva and at the school of applied arts in Zurich, worked in advertising in Paris and in Bern as an animation artist and window dresser. In 1937 he painted his first mural, 'Fische im Netz' (Fish in the Net), at the Dählhölzli zoo; many more for schools in Bern and Zurich followed. For the Cabaret Cornichon he designed around 300 stage sets up to 1941. His picture book 'Pitschi' about a kitten became known worldwide; according to SIKART it first appeared in 1944, according to the HLS in 1948. In 1955 he won a prize for graphic art at the São Paulo Biennial. He died in Interlaken in 1958.

SIKART describes cats and cockerels as frequent animals in Fischer's prints and drawings, often with an almost human gaze. Standing in front of the wall, you can check which instruments the animals are playing here.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikidata: Musizierende Katzen und Hühner (Q64382529) · Wikimedia Commons: Sgraffito Musizierende Katzen und Hühner (Hans Fischer 1950) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Meienegg (PDF) · Stadt Bern: Städtebauliche Studie Stöckacker Nord, Bericht des Beurteilungsgremiums (2018) · SIKART: Hans Fischer (Sandi Paucic) · HLS: Fischer, Hans (Tapan Bhattacharya) · Wikipedia (en): Hans Fischer (painter)