Arno Breker, Sinnende

Arno Breker, Sinnende Arno Breker, Sinnende Arno Breker, Sinnende

Select product:



'Sinnende', 1980 ('Meditation')

- condition : II                    
- size : height 35 cm
- signed : at base. With foundry mark Venturio Art
- type : bronze                 
- misc. : series 999. Model from 1942, cast made after WWII

Left: Arno Breker, postcard*, 'Die Partei'.
Right: Arno Breker, postcard, 'Die Wehrmacht'.
Statues representing the spirit of the Nazi Party that flanked the carriage entrance to Albert Speer’s new Reich Chancellery.     

Left: Arno Breker, postcard, 'Der Rächer' ('Revenger'), GDK 1941, room 2.
Right: Arno Breker, postcard, 'Apollo und Daphne', GDK 1944, room 2.

Left: Arno breker, postcard, 'Berufung' ('Mission'), GDK 1941, room 2.
Right: Arno breker, postcard, 'Bereitschaft' ('Readyness'), GDK 1939, room 2.

Berlin Olympic Stadion (still existing)
Left: Arno Breker, 'Zehnkämpfer' ('Decathlate'). GDK 1937, room 15.
Right: Arno Breker, ‘Die Siegerin’ (‘The Victress’). GDK 1937, room 8.
Both sculptures are placed in the Pfeilerhalle (Pillar-hall) of the ‘Haus des Deutschen Sports‘, Berlin Olympic Stadiun. Photos: 2015.
‘Die Siegerin’ -likely the plaster model- stood also in the Reichskanzlei (located in the 'Verbindungshallen im Westlichen Verwaltungsbau’); ‘Die Siegerin’ was also displayed in the International Pavilion of  the World Exhibition, 1937, in Paris.

Arno Breker, postcard, ‘Knieendes’ (‘Kneeling woman’). GDK 1942, room 11.

Arno Breker, ‘Aurora’. Sculpture, created in 1926, on the roof of the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (photo: 2014).

Left: Arno Breker, 'Vergeltung' ('Revenge'), depicted in the 'Völkischer Beobachter', 1943, after the lost Battle of Stalingrad.
Right: Arno Breker, postcard*, 'Vergeltung'.

Left: Arno Breker, ‘Du und Ich‘, depicted in ‘Zucht und Sitte‘, Folge V, 1944. Depicted is assumably the GDK-plaster model.
Right: 'Du und Ich', executed in bronze. Size 230 x 127 cm. Created in the late 1960s as one of a series of 12 by foundry Herbert Schmäke, Düsseldorf. Other smaller casts in bronze (75,5 x 41 cm) were created as part of a series of 15. 

Left: 'Bust of Arthur Kampf', by Arno Breker, created in 1935. Bronze, height 38 cm. Displayed in 2016 by the ‘Museum de Fundatie', The Netherlands (given on loan by the heirs of Arno Breker). The same -or a similar- cast of Arthur Kampf by Breker, was displayed at the GDK 1937 room 2.
Right: 'Bust of Arthur Kampf' by Arno Breker, displayed at the 'Frühjahrs-Ausstellung', 1937, Preussische Akademie der Künste. Depicted in the exhibition catalog.  

Hermann Göring Collection
Hermann Görings entire art collection comprised some 4,263 paintings, sculptures and tapestries. He planned to display them in the ‘Norddeutsche Galerie’, an art gallery which should be created after the war. The Norddeutsche Gallery was to be erected as an annex to Karinhall in the big forest of the Schorfheide, near Berlin. According to the website of the German Historical Museum, the following works by Arno Breker were part of the collection: ‘Morgenröte’ and ‘Schreitende’ (life size bronzes, both cast in Paris), ‘Anmut’ (marble) and a Horse-relief (high-relief, bronze, 125 x 100 cm, also cast in Paris).

Arno Breker
The Michelangelo of the Third Reich
Arno Breker (1900 – 1991) was a German sculptor, best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, which were endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of degenerate art. During his time in Paris in the twenties and early thirties he was influenced by Jean Cocteau, Jean Renoir, Pablo Picasso and Aristide Maillol, who was later to describe Breker as 'Germany's Michelangelo'. He maintained personal relationships with Albert Speer and with Hitler. In 1937 Breker joined the Nazi Party and was made 'official state sculptor' by Hitler. He was given a large property and provided a studio with forty-three assistants. As main sculptor and more or less number one on the Gottbegnadeten list, he was exempted from military service. His twin sculptures The Party and The Army held a prominent position at the entrance to Albert Speer's new Reich Chancellery. 
Arno Breker was represented at the Great German Art Exhibitions with 42 works. The neoclassical nature of his work, with titles like Comradschip, Torchbearer and Sacrifice, typified Nazi ideals, and suited the characteristics of Nazi architecture. On closer inspection, though, the proportions of his figures, the highly colorful treatment of his surfaces (the strong contrasts between dark and light accents), and the melodramatic tension of their musculatures perhaps invites comparison with the Italian Mannerist sculptors of the 16th century. While nearly all of his sculptures survived World War II, more than 90% of his public work was destroyed by the Allies after the war.
Arno Breker had 10 sculptures displayed at the XXI Venice Biennale, 1938 and the XXII Venice Biennale, 1940, including ‘Pronti’ (‘Bereitschaft’, GDK 1939), ‘Ricardo Wagner’ (‘Bust of Richard Wagner’, GDK 1941), and ‘Ponderazione’ (‘Berufung’, GDK 1941). Four works by Breker were part of the art collection of Hermann Göring and destinated for the 'Norddeutsche Gallery'.
In 1946 Breker was offered a commission by Joseph Stalin but he refused and stated 'One dictatorship is sufficient for me'. 
After the war he continued to receive commissions for sculptures, producing a number of works in his familiar classical style, working for businesses and individual patrons. He also produced many bronze female sculptures, in smaller sizes. Some of these were casts from original models designed before 1945. His works can be seen in the Breker Museum in Schloss Nörvenich in Germany.

* As also stated in our General Terms and Conditions, German Art Gallery offers the depicted postcards for sale. Prices on request.