Lesser Ury

Ury, the son of a Jewish master baker, initially began an apprenticeship as a merchant in Berlin before taking up art studies at the Düsseldorf Academy in 1879, which he continued at the Brussels Academy in 1882 after spending time in Belgium and Paris. After further years of travelling, which also took him to the Munich Academy for a year in 1886, he settled in Berlin in 1887. Here he formed a friendship with Max Liebermann, which ended in 1891 when they fell out. Ury subsequently travelled extensively to Thuringia, northern Italy and Holland, and later also to London. In 1914 he joined the Berlin Secession at Corinth’s invitation. In 1916, an exhibition at the Paul Cassirer Gallery was a great success with the public. The last years of his life were overshadowed by heart disease, from which he died in 1931. The last major exhibition of his work took place in 1995 at the Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Berlin.