HANS ERNI (1909-2015)

One month after his 106th birthday Swiss artist and medallist Hans Erni died on 21 March 2015. He bequeaths a rich artistic oeuvre comprising drafts of a banknote series never issued, a commemorative coin, medals, and stamps.

Hans Erni was born on 21 February 1909. He was son to the operator of the steamboat running on the Lake Lucerne and one of his seven children. At the age of only 18 Hans Erni took up art studies in Lucerne and travelled to Paris one year later where he quickly socialised with the international artists’ scene. Erni had close contact with so great artists as Picasso and Braque. He helped them in exhibiting their works in the Lucerne art museum.

At that time such urbanity was suspicious in Switzerland. When a new banknote series designed by Erni and another artist was to be issued in 1938 it was, instead, pulped at the instigation of a Lucerne parliamentarian. In the late 1930s it was truly inconceivable for a bourgeois that ‘of all things a communist like Erni’ should have obtained such a contract. Yet in 1950 the Federal Council officially declared that Hans Erni would never again get a public contract.

Actually Hans Erni never joined a political party although one may call his works political without any doubt. His oeuvre reflects an engaged man who always said what he thought right. It did not matter to him whether he created election posters for the introduction of the women’s suffrage or the Swiss pension scheme AHV, or stamps, coins, or medals.

Hans Erni Four Elements medal: Fire

Since 1969 Hans Erni has created some 25 medals in gold, silver and bronze.

You can read more about Hans Erni and his medallic work on the Erniland website.

To read the complete article, see:
Hans Erni (1909-2015) (http://coinsweekly.com/en/News/4?&id=3331)

To visit the Ermiland web site, see:
http://www.erniland.com/ErniMedals/index.asp

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