Hans Jakob Meyer

Hans Jakob Meyer was born on 11 September 1903 in Zurich. After the Zurich School of Applied Arts he apprenticed as a sculptor with Otto Münch.

From 1923 to 1926 he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva and worked part-time in a plaster workshop under James Vibert, a master pupil of Auguste Rodin. Study stays in Paris, Rome, Florence and Athens followed, together with longer travels to South America, England and Spain.

After his marriage in 1937 he lived and worked as an independent sculptor in Feldmeilen. In 1939 his group "Senn und Stier" won first prize at the Swiss National Exhibition. From 1950 onwards he received public commissions from the City of Zurich and several municipalities.

Among his best-known public works are "Die Schreitende" (1971) at the Waid hospital training centre, "Knabe mit Fisch" (1962) on the Pfäffikon ZH waterfront, the Schifferbrunnen in Eglisau (1960) and Hermann Hesse’s gravestone (1963).

The Conrad-Ferdinand-Meyer Foundation honoured him with a prize in 1953; the Canton of Zurich awarded him a cultural prize in 1979. For several years he served on the canton’s art commission. From 1959 to 1972 he taught modelling and life drawing at the Zurich School of Applied Arts. Hans Jakob Meyer died in Feldmeilen on 4 July 1981.