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17Dec25

Right river bank with City Hall (Joseph Clemens Kaufmann)

Right river bank with City Hall (Joseph Clemens Kaufmann) - Wikimedia Commons

        

This piece of art was painted by Joseph Clemens Kaufmann in 1901.
The artist was born 1867 in Horw (near Lucerne). He studied Art in Geneva and Paris and run a painter's studio in Lucerne. He also specialized in haunting and military paintings. 1916 he moved to Zurich, where he lived until his death 1926.

The "Right river bank with City Hall" was an order of the Korporation der Stadt Luzern. The artist was asked to paint the way it looked before the Rathaus Bridge and the Rathaus Quai were built, and so he did.

In the middle of the painting you see the Town Hall and the Tower. They were built in the early 17th Century. All the stone works of the town hall were manufactured by Italian masters and their crews in the style of the Renaissance. However the roof is typically swiss, actually bernese.
The Tower was there long before, but it was not that high. It was enlarged several times and got a red roof with a look-out and four oriels, from where tower guardians had to watch out to detect a possible fire.

On the river you see merchant boats and underneath the arcades of the town hall you see a colorful market. So it must be Tuesday or Saturday morning, because these are the days of the market in Lucerne, almost since ever.

The Chapel Bridge (Joseph Clemens Kaufmann)

     

The Lucerne artist Joseph Clemens Kaufmann painted this picture for the Korporation der Stadt Luzern.
Until 1897 the Chapel Bridge led directly to the St. Peter's Chapel.

The Chapel Bridge - Joseph Clemens Kaufmann (1876-1926) - Wikimedia Commons

Around 1500 this was the only passage to get in or out of the city by boat. All the rest of the river was fortificated with palisade.
The Passage was guarded and equipped with portcullis.
Later the guardian’s pier was used by maids for washing.
You can see that also on the Martini plan.

After the big fire in the Brandgässli 1833 the Rathausquai street was built and 1897/98 the bridge got shortened by 18 meters.

The Grendel (Xaver Schwegler)

The painting "The Grendel" shows the flooded Grendel in 1846. Xaver Schwegler (1832-1902) painted the art piece much later according to his father's (Jakob Schwegler 1793-1866) original.

The Grendel, Xaver Schwegler (1832-1902) - Wikimedia

Up to the 16th century, a moat filled with lake water led from the Grendel to the Lowengraben to the Muhlenplatz and the river Reuss. After the construction of the Musegg wall the Lowengraben was filled up. But the Grendel, as you can see it on the picture, remained as a moat until 1819. 

In the front left you can see a boat with the boatman and two passengers. In the middle of the scene, three children play on a raft. In front of the the Lederturm (Leather Tower) strong men pull a black carriage into the dry, while on the right bank three bystanders watch this happen. The Lederturm served as a prison and was demolished in 1848.

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Rathaus and Pfistern by Ulrich Gutersohn (painting)

The windows of the houses are decorated with geraniums. The trees bear light green leaves. It could be early summer. You can see the colorful market among the arcades and the naves in the river. So it must be Tuesday or Saturday. Because these are the two market days in Lucerne, for centuries.
The Rathausbrücke bridge, which was built in 1899, is missing on the picture.

Rathaus and Pfistern, Ulrich Gutersohn - Wikimedia

The town hall, which was built in 1606, shines in the morning sun. The building style of the house is special. While the roof reminds to an Emmental farmhouse, the stone work is Late Renaissance. Also the Rathausturm tower unites various styles and is partly much older than the town hall.

The guild house of the Pfistern (bakers), in the picture on the left, was built in 1578 on the walls of the predecessor house that the bakers had already bought 1408.

The house adjoining to the town hall is the Am Rhyn house. In the background on the left you can see two of the Musegg wall Towers. The Restaurant Pfistern and also the The Restaurant Raben beside it (now Brasserie Bodu) already had terraces.

Ulrich Gutersohn was born in Frauenfeld in 1862, studied at the Royal-Bavarian School of Art in Munich. He then traveled to Italy and studied in Florence, Rome and Naples. In 1885 the then 23 year old was elected by the city council as a drawing teacher of the boys' school. The popular and versatile artist practiced as a drawing teacher until his retirement in 1923. Ulrich Gutersohn died in 1946 in Lucerne.

Rathaus and Pfistern, May 2015

Corporations Building (or Sonnenberghaus) by Ulrich Gutersohn (painting)

Corporations Building (or Sonnenberghaus) by Ulrich Gutersohn. Wikimedia

The painting "Corporations Building (or Sonnenberghaus)" by Ulrich Gutersohn dates from 1885 and shows the view on the left bank of the river Reuss. The painter must have stood either on the Zöpfli square or on the needle dam when he painted this art piece.

On the left in the foreground you can see the 17th century patrician house of the Sonnenberg family, today's building of the Corporation of the City of Lucerne. It is built in the style of French baroque and is considered one of the most beautiful Lucerne patrician houses of the time.

In the center of the picture you can see the then still open Krienbach creek, which used to lead to great flooding in the past. Today the Krienbach is covered with the Burgerstrasse street and largely diverted. From the Zöpfli square you can still see how the Krienbach flows into the Reuss under the Burgerstrasse.

Behind the Sonnenberghaus you can see the Burgerturm tower, demolished in 1864. It was once part of the inner fortification ring. The building in white at the very end of the Krienbach is the Krienbachschulhaus, a school house built the middle of the 19th century. The last of the three bridges in the picture is the Krienbrücke Bridge.

To the right of the Krienbrücke, a few steps towards the river Reuss you see the house of the mill with the special construction in the house gable. The probably retrofitted part of the building is spatially slightly offset and does not follow the house line.

On the right part of the picture you can see a beautiful oriel, which belongs to the Restaurant Nix zur Laterne. In the background you can see Mount Pilatus, where the Krienbach creek springs.