The Grasshopper (La Sauterelle)

Born in Luzern, Switzerland in 1909, Hans Erni died in March 2015 at the advanced age of 105 years. In 1927 he studied at the Lucerne School of Arts and Crafts then briefly attended the Académie Julian in Paris. He also spent a year in Berlin where he met Kathe Kollwitz and Max Slevogt and became aware of the rising struggle between the Left and the National Socialists.

During the 1930s Erni took interest in contemporary French painting and joined the Abstraction Creation group, exhibiting with major artists of the generation. He received commissions for several important frescos and from the 1960s onwards his prolific output included major stamp designs for Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In 1979 the Hans Erni Museum was inaugurated in Lucerne, and he has since been regarded as a national treasure by his Swiss contemporaries.