Renée Sintenis *
(Glatz/Schlesien 1888–1965 Berlin)
Große Daphne, 1930 (conceived in 1930, executed after 1945), bronze cast with a brown patina, casters mark on the back H. NOACK BERLIN, one out of at least 13 casts, height 144 cm
Provenance:
Sale, Ketterer, 8 December 2015, lot 288
Private Collection, Northern Germany (acquired from the above)
Exhibited:
Berlin, Galerie Flechtheim, Künstlerinnen, 1931 (another cast exhibited)
Frankfurt am Main, Haus des Deutschen Kunsthandwerkes, Kunst des deutschen Ostens aus 7 Jahrhunderten, 1953 (another cast exhibited)
Hamburg, Plastik im Freien, 1953, no. 40, illustrated p. 64 (another cast exhibited and illustrated)
Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, Moderne Meister aus dem Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Köln Sammlung Dr. J. Haubrich, 1955, no 122 (another cast exhibited)
New York, Museum of Modern Art: St. Louis, City Art Museum, German art of the twentieth century, 1957, no. 172 (another cast exhibited)
Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, Renée Sintenis, 1958, no. 45 (another cast exhibited)
Solingen, Deutsches Klingenmuseum, Kunstwerke des 20. Jahrhunderts aus Solinger Privatbesitz, 1960, no. 67 (another cast exhibited)
Lindau/Bregenz, RS und Johann Michael Wilm, 1961, no. 6 (another cast exhibited)
Müllheim/Ruhr, Städtisches Museum, Renée Sintenis, 1962, no. 27 (another cast exhibited)
Berlin, Akademie der Künste, Symbol und Mythos in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, 1963, no. 82 (another cast exhibited)
Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Exposition-Internationale, 1964 (another cast exhibited)
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Akt und Auktion, 1972–1973, no. 9b (another cast exhibited)
Berlin, Georg-Kolbe-Museum; Osnabrück, Kulturgeschichliches Museum; Regensburg, Ostdeutsche Galerie; Düren, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Renée Sintenis, Plastiken, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik, 1983–1984, no. 38, illustrated p. 86 (another cast exhibited and illustrated)
Cologne, Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Skulptur des Expressionismus, 1984, no. 136, illustrated p. 187 (another cast exhibited and illustrated)
Würzburg, Kulturspeicher Würzburg, Dialog Skulptur, 10 May – 20 August 2006 (another cast); Berlin, Galerie Flechtheim, Künstlerinnen, 1931 (another cast exhibited)
Bremen, Gerhard-Marcks-Haus, Daphne: Mythos und Metamorphose; 2009–2010
Lübeck, Behnhaus/Bürgergärten, (another cast), New York, Museum of Modern Art (another cast), Köln, Museum Ludwig, (another cast), Hagen, Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Museum (another cast)
Literature:
Hannah Kiel, Renée Sintenis, Berlin, 1935, another cast illustrated pp. 4 and 68-69
Alfred Hentzen, Deutsche Bildhauer der Gegenwart, Berlin, circa 1936, another cast illustrated p. 61
Bruno E. Werner, Die Deutsche Plastik der Gegenwart, Berlin, 1940, another cast illustrated p. 62
Rudolf Hagelstange, Renée Sintenis, Berlin, 1940, another cast illustrated pp. 84-86
Alfred Barr, Painting and Sculpture in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1948, another cast illustrated pp. 148 and 321
Adolf Jannasch, Renée Sintenis, Potsdam, 1949, another cast illustrated pp. 22-23
Ulrich Gertz, Plastik der Gegenwart, Berlin, 1953, another cast illustrated p. 129
Hannah Kiel, Renée Sintenis, Berlin, 1956, another cast illustrated pp. 44-45
Alfred Barr, Painting and Sculpture in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1958, another cast illustrated p. 56
Gert von der Osten, Plastik des 20. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz, Königsten, 1962, another cast illustrated p. 7 Hildegard Westhoff-Krummacher, Die Bildwerke seit etwa 1800 im Wallraf-Richartz-Museum und im öffentlichen Besitz der Stadt Köln, Cologne, 1965, another cast illustrated p. 243
Lübecker Museumsführer, Verzeichnis: Das Behnhaus, Lübeck, 1967, no. 222, another cast illustrated pp. 202 and 589
Britta E. Buhlmann, Renée Sintenis: Werkmonographie der Skulpturen, Darmstadt, 1987, no. 68, another cast illustrated p. 177
Gerhard-Marcks-Stiftung,, exh. cat. Daphne: Mythos und Metamorphose, Bremen, 2009
Ursel Berger & Günther Ladwig, Renée Sintenis, Das Plastische Werk, Berlin, 2013, no. 117, another cast illustrated p. 46 and 116
Ursel Berger and Günther Ladwig, Renee Sintenis, Catalogue Raisonnée: Das plastische Werk, Berlin 2013, p. 46, 116 no. 117 (with ill.)
Renée Sintenis Zwischen Freiheit und Moderne. Die Bildhauerin Renée Sintenis (exhibition catalogue), Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, 2019-2020, another cast illustrated pp. 88-93
Renée Sintenis rose to fame with her animal bronzes: foals on spindly legs, clumsy young dogs and fawns. She herself described her work simply as "Tiere machen" ("making animals"). Her sculptural œuvre, however, began before the First World War with figures of young women. These slender, tall girlish figures speak of the difficult early years of an artist who had left her parents' home so as not to become her father's secretary. In many of them one seems to recognise Sintenis herself. At 1.80 metres tall, slim and with a striking profile, she was an unmistakable presence.
The Daphne of 1917 is both the culmination and the close of this group of works. It is also the only female figure that met with rapid success: Alfred Flechtheim planned an edition of 25 bronzes and three silver casts. It is, moreover, the only human figure Sintenis translated into monumental scale. In 1930 the Lübeck museum director Carl Georg Heise commissioned the Large Daphne. Cast in gilded bronze, it was installed in the garden of the Behnhaus as a modern cult image, as it were. The figure also gained international recognition early on: the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired a cast in 1939, and the Saint Louis Art Museum followed in 1949.
With this mythological subject Sintenis ventured onto unfamiliar terrain within her work. Ovid tells of the river nymph who flees the desiring Apollo and escapes him by turning into a laurel tree: bark encloses her body, her hair becomes foliage, her arms become branches and her feet take root. Bernini stages the dramatic moment of pursuit and transformation. Sintenis, by contrast, reduces the narrative to the standing figure of a girl. The metamorphosis is merely hinted at by a few leaves on the arms, hair and legs. The elongated limbs and the figure's suspended stillness lend it an almost dance-like grace.
It seems no coincidence that the most self-portrait-like of her figures should be clothed in myth. Sintenis described herself as shy and reserved, yet in the 1920s she became an icon of the modern woman. Daphne, withdrawing into the tree, can thus also be read as the image of an artist evading excessive admiration. After 1945 further casts of the Large Daphne were made at the Hermann Noack art foundry in Berlin. The present example belongs to this later group.
Specialist: Joëlle Romba
(Glatz/Schlesien 1888–1965 Berlin)
Große Daphne, 1930 (conceived in 1930, executed after 1945), bronze cast with a brown patina, casters mark on the back H. NOACK BERLIN, one out of at least 13 casts, height 144 cm
Provenance:
Sale, Ketterer, 8 December 2015, lot 288
Private Collection, Northern Germany (acquired from the above)
Exhibited:
Berlin, Galerie Flechtheim, Künstlerinnen, 1931 (another cast exhibited)
Frankfurt am Main, Haus des Deutschen Kunsthandwerkes, Kunst des deutschen Ostens aus 7 Jahrhunderten, 1953 (another cast exhibited)
Hamburg, Plastik im Freien, 1953, no. 40, illustrated p. 64 (another cast exhibited and illustrated)
Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, Moderne Meister aus dem Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Köln Sammlung Dr. J. Haubrich, 1955, no 122 (another cast exhibited)
New York, Museum of Modern Art: St. Louis, City Art Museum, German art of the twentieth century, 1957, no. 172 (another cast exhibited)
Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, Renée Sintenis, 1958, no. 45 (another cast exhibited)
Solingen, Deutsches Klingenmuseum, Kunstwerke des 20. Jahrhunderts aus Solinger Privatbesitz, 1960, no. 67 (another cast exhibited)
Lindau/Bregenz, RS und Johann Michael Wilm, 1961, no. 6 (another cast exhibited)
Müllheim/Ruhr, Städtisches Museum, Renée Sintenis, 1962, no. 27 (another cast exhibited)
Berlin, Akademie der Künste, Symbol und Mythos in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, 1963, no. 82 (another cast exhibited)
Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Exposition-Internationale, 1964 (another cast exhibited)
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Akt und Auktion, 1972–1973, no. 9b (another cast exhibited)
Berlin, Georg-Kolbe-Museum; Osnabrück, Kulturgeschichliches Museum; Regensburg, Ostdeutsche Galerie; Düren, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Renée Sintenis, Plastiken, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik, 1983–1984, no. 38, illustrated p. 86 (another cast exhibited and illustrated)
Cologne, Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Skulptur des Expressionismus, 1984, no. 136, illustrated p. 187 (another cast exhibited and illustrated)
Würzburg, Kulturspeicher Würzburg, Dialog Skulptur, 10 May – 20 August 2006 (another cast); Berlin, Galerie Flechtheim, Künstlerinnen, 1931 (another cast exhibited)
Bremen, Gerhard-Marcks-Haus, Daphne: Mythos und Metamorphose; 2009–2010
Lübeck, Behnhaus/Bürgergärten, (another cast), New York, Museum of Modern Art (another cast), Köln, Museum Ludwig, (another cast), Hagen, Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Museum (another cast)
Literature:
Hannah Kiel, Renée Sintenis, Berlin, 1935, another cast illustrated pp. 4 and 68-69
Alfred Hentzen, Deutsche Bildhauer der Gegenwart, Berlin, circa 1936, another cast illustrated p. 61
Bruno E. Werner, Die Deutsche Plastik der Gegenwart, Berlin, 1940, another cast illustrated p. 62
Rudolf Hagelstange, Renée Sintenis, Berlin, 1940, another cast illustrated pp. 84-86
Alfred Barr, Painting and Sculpture in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1948, another cast illustrated pp. 148 and 321
Adolf Jannasch, Renée Sintenis, Potsdam, 1949, another cast illustrated pp. 22-23
Ulrich Gertz, Plastik der Gegenwart, Berlin, 1953, another cast illustrated p. 129
Hannah Kiel, Renée Sintenis, Berlin, 1956, another cast illustrated pp. 44-45
Alfred Barr, Painting and Sculpture in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1958, another cast illustrated p. 56
Gert von der Osten, Plastik des 20. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz, Königsten, 1962, another cast illustrated p. 7 Hildegard Westhoff-Krummacher, Die Bildwerke seit etwa 1800 im Wallraf-Richartz-Museum und im öffentlichen Besitz der Stadt Köln, Cologne, 1965, another cast illustrated p. 243
Lübecker Museumsführer, Verzeichnis: Das Behnhaus, Lübeck, 1967, no. 222, another cast illustrated pp. 202 and 589
Britta E. Buhlmann, Renée Sintenis: Werkmonographie der Skulpturen, Darmstadt, 1987, no. 68, another cast illustrated p. 177
Gerhard-Marcks-Stiftung,, exh. cat. Daphne: Mythos und Metamorphose, Bremen, 2009
Ursel Berger & Günther Ladwig, Renée Sintenis, Das Plastische Werk, Berlin, 2013, no. 117, another cast illustrated p. 46 and 116
Ursel Berger and Günther Ladwig, Renee Sintenis, Catalogue Raisonnée: Das plastische Werk, Berlin 2013, p. 46, 116 no. 117 (with ill.)
Renée Sintenis Zwischen Freiheit und Moderne. Die Bildhauerin Renée Sintenis (exhibition catalogue), Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, 2019-2020, another cast illustrated pp. 88-93
Renée Sintenis rose to fame with her animal bronzes: foals on spindly legs, clumsy young dogs and fawns. She herself described her work simply as "Tiere machen" ("making animals"). Her sculptural œuvre, however, began before the First World War with figures of young women. These slender, tall girlish figures speak of the difficult early years of an artist who had left her parents' home so as not to become her father's secretary. In many of them one seems to recognise Sintenis herself. At 1.80 metres tall, slim and with a striking profile, she was an unmistakable presence.
The Daphne of 1917 is both the culmination and the close of this group of works. It is also the only female figure that met with rapid success: Alfred Flechtheim planned an edition of 25 bronzes and three silver casts. It is, moreover, the only human figure Sintenis translated into monumental scale. In 1930 the Lübeck museum director Carl Georg Heise commissioned the Large Daphne. Cast in gilded bronze, it was installed in the garden of the Behnhaus as a modern cult image, as it were. The figure also gained international recognition early on: the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired a cast in 1939, and the Saint Louis Art Museum followed in 1949.
With this mythological subject Sintenis ventured onto unfamiliar terrain within her work. Ovid tells of the river nymph who flees the desiring Apollo and escapes him by turning into a laurel tree: bark encloses her body, her hair becomes foliage, her arms become branches and her feet take root. Bernini stages the dramatic moment of pursuit and transformation. Sintenis, by contrast, reduces the narrative to the standing figure of a girl. The metamorphosis is merely hinted at by a few leaves on the arms, hair and legs. The elongated limbs and the figure's suspended stillness lend it an almost dance-like grace.
It seems no coincidence that the most self-portrait-like of her figures should be clothed in myth. Sintenis described herself as shy and reserved, yet in the 1920s she became an icon of the modern woman. Daphne, withdrawing into the tree, can thus also be read as the image of an artist evading excessive admiration. After 1945 further casts of the Large Daphne were made at the Hermann Noack art foundry in Berlin. The present example belongs to this later group.
Specialist: Joëlle Romba
