Street scene by night, Berlin (possibly Bellevuestrasse)

Details

With a photo expertise and documentation by Dr. Sibylle Groß, Berlin, dated 5.10.2013; this pastel will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of works by Lesser Ury. Exhibitions: Meisterwerke der Klassischen Moderne, Galerie Pels-Leusden, Kampen 1998, cat. no.77, S. 8, with col. illus. p. 9. Provenance: private collection, England; private collection, Berlin; Grisebach, Berlin 28.11.2013, lot 3; private collection, Berlin.

Description

• This work clearly displays the influence of French Impressionism and plein air painting, which Ury encountered during his studies in Paris
• The early pastel already contains the classic elements of Ury’s pictorial cosmos: the metropolis, night, rain, traffic, artificial light
• Ury captures the poetry of a fleeting moment

This nocturnal street scene was created after the 28-year-old Lesser Ury settled in Berlin in 1887 following his years of study in Düsseldorf, Munich, Brussels and Paris. The works from this period clearly show the influence of Impressionism and French open-air painting, which Ury first encountered in Paris. But the artist translated this new approach to his work into his very own pictorial language. This early masterpiece already contains the entire cosmos of Ury’s artistic interests, which he was to vary again and again in his works: the big city, night, rain, traffic, artificial lighting. The art critic Adolph Donath wrote about Lesser Ury in 1921: ,”In 1889 he had his first exhibition at (the Berlin art dealer) Gurlitt. Together with Leibl, Uhde, Liebermann and Skarbina. Fritz Gurlitt, who owned a small shop in Behrensstraße, brought together all the talents who have since established themselves.” At a second exhibition at the Gurlitt art dealership the following year, Ury’s Berlin street scenes aroused particular indignation among the public and most critics. The reason for this vehement rejection was the new style of painting, which was still regarded as strange in Berlin art circles, and was seen as an almost brutal way of capturing an image. Ury accompanied the rise of Berlin as the only major German city of note to become a metropolis. He was fascinated by the new artificial lighting of the modern city. He succeeded like no other German painter in capturing the gas lighting of the streets, the lanterns of the cabs and later the headlights of the automobiles. In his paintings and pastels, he created completely new spaces and urban atmospheres by depicting the effects of light on wet roads. He also succeeded in something else: he captured the poetry of fleeting moments amidst of the hustle and bustle of the city. Like a photographic snapshot, he catches a passing instant – two ladies in evening dress emerge from a hansom cab, wrapped in warm coats and muffs. Have they come from the opera? The dark, rain-soaked carriageway glistens in the light of the gas lanterns. The trees prevent the viewer from seeing where the women are headed. Is it one of the quiet streets on the edge of the Tiergarten in the elegant west of Berlin or in the south-west villa colonies? Another quick glance back and the two women will have disappeared. These allusions, the mystery and the silence of the night create a fascination for us viewers today, which presumably also stems from our contrasting experience of cities as perpetually loud and brightly lit.