2833 - Renée Sintenis (1888 Glatz – 1965 Berlin)

Renée Sintenis (1888 Glatz – 1965 Berlin) Large Kneeling Deer Bronze with a patina in nuanced shades of gray-green, 1930. Signed “Sintenis” (without dots over the “i”); foundry mark “H NOACK BERLIN.” Cat. no. Ladwig 121, Buhlmann 187. An extremely rare garden sculpture, of which only two castings are known to exist—apart from the specimen documented by Buhlmann, which is the one presented here, only one other is held in the Knauf Collection in Berlin. Sintenis revisited the composition of her small 1915 bronze “Kneeling Deer,” enlarging it and adding a plinth. Her “Kneeling Deer” was among the very first animal bronzes by the Berlin sculptor, who had first entered the art world in 1913–14 with sculptures of dancers and female nudes: In 1913, Sintenis made her debut at the “Berlin Autumn Exhibition 1913,” which was organized by the same artists who founded the “Freie Secession” in Berlin in 1914 and in whose first exhibition she also participated (and contributed to its subsequent exhibitions as well). At the same time, she found a competent partner in the renowned Noack art foundry in Berlin to adequately realize her sculptural ideas. She quickly attracted the attention of art critics and earned their praise, even after Sintenis—who shunned anything monumental—had found her true main theme in 1915 with her striking, mostly small-scale animal figures. She achieved her definitive breakthrough by 1916 at the latest, after Moritz Heimann published his first article about her in the leading art magazine *Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration*. He also wrote about the “Kneeling Deer”: “Style and form are not the ultimate goal the artist must strive toward; only beyond them lies the essence. The essence, which is accessible to everyone according to the measure of their talent. Every artist will only attain deep fulfillment where expression and impression, style and nature (...) are one and the same and convey the same meaning. It is a joy to see how Miss Sintenis is on this path. When one looks at the small fawn kneeling on its knees, one sees that, although it was created directly from an impression of nature, it is nevertheless composed within a square—that is, within a preconceived framework (...) Renée Sintenis has style, and precisely for that reason she can and must seek out nature itself; she is not in danger of losing herself to naturalism” (“Deutsche Kunst u. Dekoration,” Vol. 38, April–September 1916, pp. 192–194, ill. p. 196 “Kneeling Deer”). During the Weimar Republic, Renée Sintenis became a recognized and significant sculptor not only in Germany itself but also internationally. Beginning in 1920, she also represented Alfred Flechtheim as a gallery owner—one of the most important art dealers of his time, alongside Herwarth Walden and Paul Cassirer. Her highly sought-after small-scale bronze sculptures of young animals (especially foals), depictions of athletes (boxers, soccer players, runners), and portrait busts of her circle of friends found their way into public and private collections; even Ernest Hemingway owned three of her athlete bronzes. In 1931, she became the first female sculptor (and the second woman after Käthe Kollwitz) to be appointed to the Berlin Academy of Arts (before the Nazis forced her to resign in 1934). Among her best-known works today are her bronze figures “Young Bear” from 1932 and, later, the “Berlin Bear” from 1956, which have been awarded as prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) since 1953. 52 cm x 53 cm x 19.5 cm. Literature/Exhibitions: Cat. “Renée Sintenis, Marie Laurencin, Martel, Schwichtenberg, Alexandra Exter,” Galerie Flechtheim, Berlin, December 1930, no. 7 (“The Kneeling Deer”); “Schlesische Monatshefte,” Vol. VIII, No. 1, January 1931, ill. p. 4, “From the artist’s exhibition at Galerie Flechtheim (Berlin)”; Cat. “European Sculpture,” Hagenbund, Neue Galerie, Vienna, February–March 1931, p. 23, no. 238 (“Large Deer”); Hanna Kiel, “Renée Sintenis,” Berlin 1935, ill. p. 64 (2nd ed., Berlin 1956, ill. p. 43); cat. “Renée Sintenis. Sculptural Works, Drawings, Prints,” Haus am Waldsee, Berlin 1958, no. 44; Cat. “Renée Sintenis. Sculptures,” Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin 2013/14, cat. no./inv. no. 121 with ill. (Exemplar in the Karl H. Knauf Collection, Berlin). Provenance: Private collection, Düsseldorf (according to Buhlmann). Patinated bronze, 1930. Signed, foundry stamp “H NOACK BERLIN.”