Lesser Ury (1861-1931)
Grunewaldsee, Berlin, 1893
Oil on canvas
Courtesy of the Leonid and Tatiana Nevzlin Collection
The Berliner impressionist painter Leo Lesser Ury was inspired by the city’s streets and views. This painting reveals his preoccupation with the ever-changing quality of light and its many effects. It was created at a time when the artist contemplated leaving the capital and concentrating on impressionist landscape paintings.
Must Know
Lesser Ury was a German-Jewish painter best known for his Impressionistic depictions of city life. Ury’s most acclaimed pieces are of lamp-lit cafes at night, rendered in lively brushstrokes and impasto paint. Born on November 7, 1861 in Birnbaum, Poland (formerly Prussia), he went on to study at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and spent time in Paris, Brussels, Munich, Stuttgart, and Karlsruhe. During his travels, he painted his first city scenes, interiors, and floral still lifes, establishing himself as an artist with an eye for carefully observed detail. Devoted to Judaism, over the course of his career he would return to religious historical and allegorical subjects.
More Info
he has been credited with being the first artist in Germany to depict the modern metropolis… His fascination with urban experience as a subject for his art seems to have originated during his Parisian sojourn… [when] he looked to the French Impressionists for inspiration
Grunewaldsee is a lake located in the western Bezirk Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin within the locality of Grunewald. It is about a half hour ride from the center of the city.
The present work is an example of Ury’s masterly rendered urban landscapes, reflecting the beauty of the city surroundings.
