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Description
‘Eos’
From 1937 Breker worked on the five figures ‘Eos’, ‘Wager’ (‘Risk Taker’), ‘Wäger’ (‘Weighing’), ‘Anmut’ (‘Grace’) and ‘Psyche’ (‘Psyche’), which were intended for the Round Hall of the Neue Reichskanzlei.
Biography: Arno Breker
Lifetime cast (circa 1950/60), model from 1941.
Bronze, height 237 cm.
‘Eos’, the Titaness and Greek goddess of the dawn. Sister to Helios (the sun) and Selene (the moon), she embodied the first light of morning, -symbolizing renewal, awakening, and luminous beauty. Breker portrayed her as a towering, idealized nude female figure with arms gracefully raised, evoking the spreading of dawn’s light across the horizon.
The powerful yet elegant modeling reflects Breker’s signature neoclassical style: heroic proportions, dynamic pose, and masterful handling of anatomy and surface texture. A rare large-scale work from one of the 20th century’s most accomplished sculptors in the classical tradition, this piece references Breker’s documented model illustrated in key publications such as Charles Despiau’s Arno Breker (Flammarion, 1942) and Volker G. Probst’s Arno Breker, 60 ans de sculpture (1981).
The Arno Breker Exhibition in Paris, 1942
The Arno Breker Exhibition of 1942 in Paris was a major Nazi propaganda event held at the Musée de l’Orangerie from May 15 to the end of July. It showcased the monumental, neoclassical sculptures of Hitler’s favorite state sculptor, heavily promoting Nazi cultural ideals in the occupied French capital.
The opening of the exhibition on May 15, 1942, was attended by notable French artists. The prominent French sculptor Aristide Maillol praised Breker as ’Germany’s Michelangelo’, and artists like Jean Cocteau publicly defended and praised Breker’s work, which sparked fierce debate in France.
During strict wartime metal rationing, Breker commissioned the prestigious French foundry Rudier to cast his gigantic statues. Historians and critics have long raised the highly disturbing possibility that some of the bronze came directly from melted-down historic French sculptures. During this exact period, the collaborationist Vichy regime was actively tearing down and destroying metal monuments across France to harvest raw metal for the German war effort. Consequently, Breker’s exhibition sparked deep resentment among local French citizens who saw their own cultural heritage destroyed while Nazi statues thrived. This stark contrast made the 1942 Breker exhibition a painful symbol of both Nazi cultural imperialism and the physical plunder of French artistic history.
Arno Breker and the French writer Jean Cocteau discuss ‘Eos’ at the Paris 1942 exhibition.
This work belongs to an important series of large-scale ‘Eos’ bronzes. An example of the model was prominently displayed in Hermann Göring’s Carinhall residence, in the rose garden. In the final days of World War II, to protect them from advancing forces, several major Breker bronzes -including Eos- were sunk in Grosser Döllnsee lake (next to Carinhall). Three of them were recovered by divers in 1990 and are now in possession of the Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Garten in Potsdam (on permanent loan to the Museum Jagdschloss Gross Schoenebeck). The bronzes were cast by Rudier in Paris.
Göring’s unauthorized copies
During the occupation, non-ferrous metals like bronze were strictly reserved for the German military machine. As Adolf Hitler’s favorite sculptor, Arno Breker was given special priority allocations of bronze to cast his massive monumental statues. However, Göring controlled the raw material distribution and the transportation networks out of occupied France.
When Breker sent his plaster molds to the Rudier Foundry to be cast, Göring used his ultimate authority over the foundry’s raw materials and workforce to intercept them.
Göring secretly ordered Rudier to cast extra unauthorized bronze duplicates of Breker’s works – specifically for his own private art collection at his estate, Carinhall. When Breker discovered that Göring was hoarding unauthorized bronzes of his work, he was furious. Breker, who had a direct line to Adolf Hitler, complained bitterly to the Führer about Göring’s high-handed theft of his models. Hitler ultimately forced Göring to stop bypassing the artist, but Göring kept the sculptures he had already illicitly obtained.
The historical reality of these unauthorized castings came to light after the war. When the sculptures were finally dredged up from the Döllnsee in 1990, art historians confirmed they were Breker works bearing the distinct Alexis Rudier stamp – the physical remnants of Göring’s backroom deals with the Paris foundry behind the sculptor’s back.
The Museum Jagdschloss Gross Schoenebeck has a different opinion: it believes that Göring did indeed acquire the sculptures through Breker (this point of view may be related to copyright issues such as the legal right of heirs to reclaim illegal copies).
Carinhall, Döllnsee. Just months before the German reunification in July 1990, specialized divers finally hauled three Breker statues to the surface. In the screen capture’s below, ‘Eos’ is being taken out of the water. The sculptures were found at a depth of 5 to 6 meters. Video of the retrieval at the 4:30 mark: Carinhall – Herakles Konzept
‘Eos’ as presented at the exhibition ‘Jagd und Macht’ in 2009 in Museum Jagdschloss Gross Schoenebeck.
Left: ‘Eos’, as presented at the 2006 Arno Breker exhibit held at the Schweriner Schleswig-Holstein-Haus.
Right: Arno Breker, in 1983 standing in front of ‘Eos’ at his Atelier Haus in Düsseldorf-Lohhausen.
‘Eos’, depicted in ‘ARNO BREKER par CHARLES DESPIAU’, 1942, page 80, published in the context of the Arno Breker exhibition in Paris, 1942.
Left: ‘Eos’ by Breker, displayed at the Arno Breker exhibition in Paris, 1942 (plaster cast).
Right: plaster cast of ‘Eos’, sold at an auction in Paris in 2008. Height 220 cm.
Eos was prominently depicted in the Universum Film AG (UFA) ‘Wochenschau’ regarding Breker’s atelier. Atelier Video
Eos, shown at the exhibition ‘Farbe Bekennen -was Kunst macht’, Marta Herford Museum, Herford, 2013. The exhibition organized by Christoph Büchel, showed no less than 50 Breker sculptures.
‘Eos’, depicted below on the front cover of the 1943 Feldpostausgabe of Arno Breker. These were compact versions of art books printed specifically for distribution to German soldiers during World War II.
Eos depicted on Künstler-Ansichtskarte Arno Breker: Bild Nr. 34, Frauen-Skulptur Eos.
| – condition | : II |
| – size | : height 237 cm |
| – signed | : Arno Breker |
| – type | : bronze, liftetime cast (1950/60) |
| – misc. I | : with foundry mark (bilgiesser A. Bischoff) |
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