The Boxer

A bronze sculpture titled The Boxer, by the South African artist, Stephanus Johannes Paulus Eloff (1885-1947). The sculptor, better known as Fanie, was born in 1885 in Pretoria South Africa. In 1910 his father sent him to France to study mining – after spending a couple of months in Paris he decided to rather study art. This had his father livid and he was cut off financially. In 1912, at the 130th Salon exhibition at the Grand Palais de Champs-Elysees in Paris, Fanie was the only sculptor to compete against the world-famous French sculptor, Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917). When Rodin took part in a competition all the sculptors of Paris withdrew their entries as they complained that they simply could not win against such a formidable artist. This did not deter Eloff, who was also the grandson of the Late President Paul Kruger (of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek), he entered the competition with this work titled 'The Boxer'. Eloff walked away with the prize and received much praise for this feat. Not only did he win the prize, he also sent a newspaper clipping home to his mother, who in turn showed it to his father. Eloff’s Father was rather impressed and decided that the boy had artistic talent, and he reinstated his financial aid to his son. 'The Boxer' was entered again in the 1924 Olympic Games along with another work titled, "Javelin Thrower". This was two of the only three South African sculptures to ever compete at the Olympic Games in the mixed sculpture category. Eloff was given an honorable mention for the work (One of only three South African artworks to ever receive a prize on the Olympic games until art as an "Olympic sport event" was seized in 1948). In the 1930s, Fanie donated the work for a new medical section in the Library of the University of Pretoria. The person who posed as the male model of the sculpture, was George Hainaux, a young boxer in France. In later years, he would become known as Jo la Terreur or Jo the Terror. In 1934, he became the bodyguard to Alexandre Stavisky a political figure and the main antagonist in the Stavisky affair, a famous French government financial scandal. After Stavisky was caught Hainaux turned snitch. In 1939 he started working for Pierre Bonney, a French police inspector turned Gestapo officer and was executed in 1944 for collaboration.