Several of you have been asking about the artist behind my new
header piece, Young Girl in Cafe with Street View by German
impressionist and printmaker, Lesser Ury (1861–1931).
Born Leo Lesser Ury in Birnbaum, he was the son of a baker whose
death in 1872 caused the family's move to Berlin. In 1878 Lesser
left school to apprentice with a tradesman, and the following year
studied painting in Düsseldorf at the Kunstakademie.
His first exhibition in 1889 met with hostile reception, although he
was championed by Adolph von Menzel, whose influence induced the
Academy to award Ury a prize. In 1893 he joined the Munich
Secession, one of the several Secessions formed by progressive
artists in Germany and Austria in the last years of the 19th century.
In 1901 he returned to Berlin, where he exhibited with the Berlin
Secession, first in 1915 and notably in 1922. By this time Ury's
critical reputation had grown and his paintings and pastels were in
demand. His subjects were landscapes, urban landscapes, and
interior scenes, treated in an Impressionistic manner.
Ury is especially noted for his paintings of nocturnal cafe scenes and
rainy streets. He developed a habit of repeating these compositions in
order to sell them while retaining the originals, and these quickly
made and inferior copies have harmed his reputation.
Always introverted and distrustful of people, Ury became increasingly
reclusive in his later years. He died in Berlin and is buried in the
Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee.
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info from Wikipedia, self portrait by Lesser Ury
