(Glatz/Silesia 1888–1965 Berlin)
Polospieler II, 1929, signed on the base R. Sintenis, cast H Noack Berlin Friedenau, total 40.5 x 38 x 17 cm (base 2 x 25.2 x 13.5 cm)

Rare example with the H Noack Berlin Friedenau stamp from the lifetime of the artist.

Provenance:
Galerie Vömel, Düsseldorf

Literature:
René Crevel, Sculpteurs Allemands, Renée Sintenis, Paris 1930, no. 91, ill. no. 52
Hanna Kiel, Renée Sintenis, Berlin 1935, p. 58–60 and Berlin 1956, p. 38–39
Britta Buhlmann, Renée Sintenis, Plastiken, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik, exhib. cat. Georg-Kolbe- Museum, Berlin 1984, no. 37
Britta E. Buhlmann, Renée Sintenis, Werkmonographie der Skulpturen, Darmstadt 1987, no. 52
Ursel Berger/Günter Ladwig ed., Renée Sintenis, Das plastische Werk, Catalogue Raisonné, Berlin 2013, no. 109

Renée Sintenis originally developed her work ‘Polospieler II’ (‘Polo Player II’) in 1928 as an award for Berlin’s polo club along with ‘Polospieler I’. In this piece, she allows the movements of man and animal to flow into one another perfectly, while capturing a moment of incredible tension. As well as crafting various animal sculptures, during the 1920s the artist became increasingly interested in themes drawn from the world of sport. This phase of work reached its zenith with Polospieler II in 1929, in which the “drama of harmony” (Britta Buhlmann, Die Bildhauerin Renée Sintenis, in: Renée Sintenis Plastiken, Zeichnungen, Druckgrafik, Berlin 1983, p. 37) is perfectly expressed through the conscious and unconscious interplay of man and animal.
The horse is solely supported by its left hind leg and the player has already reached back for the strike: his mallet, normally straight, is greatly bent like a riding crop. The rider’s concentration on the strike, and the horse’s extreme movement, with its legs positioned close together before they stretch out forwards a second later, can be clearly sensed by the viewer. Renée Sintenis captured the perfect interplay of man and animal in this sculpture.
The horse’s head, dramatically tossed to the side, its powerfully tense neck avoiding the rider’s strike, contrasts with the player’s movement, bent over to the other side. Renée Sintenis designed the sculpture so that the animal’s throat and the rider’s upper body meet at the saddle: when viewed from the side, the player’s bent back almost reflects the horse’s curved croup.
The deliberately controlled power, the flexing of the animal’s muscles and the dynamism of the entire process of the movement are further emphasised by the rough surface of the bronze.
Renée Sintenis preferred to work on her art in her apartment, where she was able to concentrate fully on the work without any distractions. She created the model on the modelling board after making sketches and taking photographs. For the smaller sculptures, the artist started by creating a wire framework, which already displays the rough shape of the piece. Larger animals and sportspeople were pre-cast in clay. Generally, the artist’s sculptures were created using the lost wax method, as this enabled the surface to be shaped in a particularly deliberate way. Renée Sintenis had all her sculptures made by the Hermann Noack Art Foundry in Berlin. She often re-worked the models for the lost wax process in the foundry, and gave the finishing touches to the sculptures once they had been cast.
She wrote about her experiences at Noack in 1927: “The father of the Noack family taught me how to chisel and patinate. We all worked alongside each other in the workshop and were always happy with each other’s company; we ate our war-time sandwiches and smoked our cigarettes together. A sculptor is nothing without a good caster, and we artists have a lot to be thankful to this family of casters for: their constant readiness to try, their good will and their taste, as well as their love for this so challenging trade.” (ibid. p. 41)
“The caster’s stamp ‘H NOACK BERLIN FRIEDENAU’ [as on the sculpture ‘Polospieler II’] is characteristic of all the early Noack casts and seems to be the version generally used from 1912 onwards. It is common until the late 1930s, but exceptions were always possible. […] From the holdings of the Georg-Kolbe Museum, it can be determined that the change to the ‘H NOACK BERLIN’ stamp took place in 1937/ 1938 – with exceptions of unknown scope. As sculptures in bronze were largely banned during the Second World War, it can be assumed that the majority of the bronzes without ‘FRIEDENAU’ were created after the war.”
Exhibition catalogue, Georg-Kolbe Museum,
Hundert Jahre Bildgiesserei H Noack,
Berlin 1997, p. 57

Renée Sintenis’ works do not depict reality: they are the image of one version of reality.
Hanna Kiel, Renée Sintenis, Berlin 1935, p. 34