Lot 623 D

Apart from the few small sculptures by Franz Marc, it is probably Renée Sintenis who established mainly small-format animal sculptures in the modern period of the early 20th century. Horses, especially jumping and grazing foals, represent their expressive animal figures full of character, hardly bigger than the palm of a hand. It is astonishing that Fritz Koenig does not participate in this traditionally realistic form of horse representation at all and models it only once, as here, in an extreme situation: in 'Roßsprung', that exhausting position between stallion and mare. The horse breeder Koenig perceives the encounter between animals as a perfect movement. The small, less naturalistic sculpture embodies the incredibly powerful tensing and rearing up at the moment of procreation.