Recently I visited the International Watchmaking Museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and discovered the great trilogy of frescos entitled “The Conquest Of Time” by Hans Erni (see detail in Fig. 1). It made me realize once more how privileged ISAPS and this Journal have been to have another piece of his tremendous work as the cover of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery for so many years.

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Detail of the fresco “The Conquest Of Time” by Hans Erni at the International Watchmaking Museum, Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Photo Courtesy of Claude Oppikofer

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When Hans Erni’s time on Earth ended on March 21, 2015, ISAPS lost a very dear friend. Indeed, it was personal friendship between our late members Trudy Vogt, Blair Rogers, and the Swiss artist Hans Erni that made it possible in 1983 that a brilliant drawing became the cover of our journal, and has remained so ever since. In his introduction to the new cover artist, Blair Rogers quoted the British art critic Sir Herbert Read, saying: “Erni’s work … is an art that attains the level of the art of the great humanistic periods—Attic grace and Renaissance wonder.” He concluded the same article—which I can only recommend for anyone who wants to know more about Hans Erni’s life—by saying: “As physicians and surgeons who are grateful to Hans Erni for his artistic contribution to our journal, it would be a fitting tribute to his generosity if we could now make him feel that he can consider any and all of us throughout the world as his friends and ever admiring neighbors.”

Some surgeons may remember the cocktail reception at the ISAPS Postgraduate Instructional Course in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1989. This reception was held at the Hans Erni Museum, and the leadership of ISAPS wanted to express its great appreciation to Hans Erni, not only for being the host of the evening in his own museum but especially for giving the present he made to the society many years before of giving the permission to use this drawing of Adam, for which he himself was the model, as the cover of the ISAPS Journal. In an unforgettable speech on that same evening, Hans Erni told the attendees about his life as an artist and a humanist and his vision of the world.

At that time, Hans Erni was already 80 years old, but he has never stopped working ever since. Over the years, he had developed a unique style in which history and mythology played an important role. His drawings of bodies and animals are unmistakable. They can be found on numerous series of postage stamps for Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the United Nations, as well as on large murals, like Panta Rhei (“all things are in a flux”) depicting the flow of the spirit through history, exposed at his museum in Lucerne, or the 60-m-long ceramic fresco at the entrance of the United Nations building in Geneva with one of his favorite themes, peace.

Hans Erni’s recognition was international, and he won numerous awards. Having himself been an athlete, Hans Erni painted and sculpted many subjects of sports, for which he was awarded the prize of the United States Sports Academy in 1989. And it was certainly his fascination for aviation that gave him the opportunity to ornament a Pilatus PC-12 airplane with drawings of white horses, Pegasus, and doves of peace in 2014 (Fig. 2). Having been a pilot himself, he was very enthusiastic to see that his paintings were now able to fly around the world.

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Pilatus PC-12 airplane painted by Hans Erni. Photo Courtesy of Pilatus Aircraft Ltd

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Hans Erni died peacefully in Lucerne at the age of 106 years.

References

  • Rogers, Hans Erni, Humanistic and Aesthetic Artist, Aesth Plast Surg 7:51–67, 1983.

  • Rogers, A Hans Erni Tribute, Aesth Plast Surg 14: 73–80, 1990.