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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from Dr. Sibylle Groß.
The German Impressionist artist Lesser Ury found himself in rivalry with fellow artist and president of the Berlin Academy of Art, Max Liebermann, for most of his life. Having returned to Berlin after years of studying in Dusseldorf, Brussels, Paris and Munich, Ury nevertheless built a reputation as a painter of the sunlit landscapes, street scenes and interiors of Berlin. In his paintings and pastels, he played with the effects of dazzling light on trees at a lake, rainy streets or artificial light in nocturnal scenes in cafes and theatres.
At the time he executed this pastel, Lesser Ury showed his works at two major exhibitions with the Berliner Sezession, in which the more progressive artists were organized. Ury was one of the first artists in Germany to take hectic modern city life, with its traffic and busy nightlife in theatres and bars, as a topic for art. As in the present pastel, Berlin and its streets with horse-drawn carriages – later with the newly developed cars – plays a prominent role in his work. The artist depicts the mood of the fast developing metropolis with its hustle and bustle, in which the viewer is occasionally involved, when, as in Alexanderplatz, Berlin, a street scene with traffic and passers-by who rush across the street, is depicted in a glimpse of a hectic moment, as if caught in a snap shot by a photographer.
Alexanderplatz, Berlin is an outstanding example of his skills and extraordinary refinement working in this medium, in which he arguably surpassed his rival Liebermann. Layers of pastel create the atmosphere in many shades of colour in which the light reflects on a shiny rainy street, blurring into the smoke emitted by a train passing on a viaduct. Details such as the reflections on the horse and wheels of the carriages are delicately depicted.
The German Impressionist artist Lesser Ury found himself in rivalry with fellow artist and president of the Berlin Academy of Art, Max Liebermann, for most of his life. Having returned to Berlin after years of studying in Dusseldorf, Brussels, Paris and Munich, Ury nevertheless built a reputation as a painter of the sunlit landscapes, street scenes and interiors of Berlin. In his paintings and pastels, he played with the effects of dazzling light on trees at a lake, rainy streets or artificial light in nocturnal scenes in cafes and theatres.
At the time he executed this pastel, Lesser Ury showed his works at two major exhibitions with the Berliner Sezession, in which the more progressive artists were organized. Ury was one of the first artists in Germany to take hectic modern city life, with its traffic and busy nightlife in theatres and bars, as a topic for art. As in the present pastel, Berlin and its streets with horse-drawn carriages – later with the newly developed cars – plays a prominent role in his work. The artist depicts the mood of the fast developing metropolis with its hustle and bustle, in which the viewer is occasionally involved, when, as in Alexanderplatz, Berlin, a street scene with traffic and passers-by who rush across the street, is depicted in a glimpse of a hectic moment, as if caught in a snap shot by a photographer.
Alexanderplatz, Berlin is an outstanding example of his skills and extraordinary refinement working in this medium, in which he arguably surpassed his rival Liebermann. Layers of pastel create the atmosphere in many shades of colour in which the light reflects on a shiny rainy street, blurring into the smoke emitted by a train passing on a viaduct. Details such as the reflections on the horse and wheels of the carriages are delicately depicted.