Renée Sintenis

In 1917 she married her friend, the painter and typographer Emil Rudolf Weiß. In the 1920s Sintenis became known as an animal sculptor in Berlin; she had discovered this theme for herself in 1915. In 1920 Alfred Flechtheim signed her to a contract. A passionate rider, she repeatedly modelled horses and young foals, and these are among the most captivating works she created. Her sculptures and figurines display nuanced and vibrantly animated, “impressionistic” surfaces, which she worked lovingly. In the 1930s the public renown of the artist, who was denounced by the Nazis, diminished and she was prohibited from working. In 1930 she created her expressive “Große Daphne” (Large Daphne). After 1945, Sintenis worked in Berlin as a professor at the College of Fine Arts, and the German government awarded her a Cross of the Order of Merit. Her 1956 “Berliner Bär” (Berlin Bear) has served as the emblem for the prize of the Berlin film festival, the “Berlinale”, since 1960. Today Renée Sintenis is one of the best-known female German sculptors from the period of Classical Modernism.