Ornament, monument and gender in German sculpture, 1910-1930: Milly Steger and Renée Sintenis

In a 1914 article, the German critic and socialist Robert Breuer argued that 'modern decorative sculpture' had developed along two strands: as small sculpture, and as monumental decoration of architecture. Breuer attributed both impulses to people's psychological response to the functionality of modern buildings and interiors. This chapter explores the two notions of the decorative, situated at the opposite ends of Robert Breuer's spectrum and exemplified by the works of two of the most successful German sculptors of the period between 1910 and 1930: Milly Steger's monumental stone figures for the Municipal Theatre in Hagen of 1911, and Renée Sintenis' small-scale bronze figurines, sought after as commodities by private buyers in the 1920s.