Lesser Ury - Seinequai in the fog. Oil on canvas,... Lot 705

Lesser Ury - Seinequai in the fog. Oil on canvas, on cardboard. 1928. approx. 32 x 24 cm. Signed, dated and inscribed "Paris" lower left. - Atmospheric late work from the last trip to Paris in 1928 - Unique depiction of the foggy, damp light of the March sun - Shown at Lesser Ury's important comprehensive solo exhibitions in 1928 and 1931 Lesser Ury travels to Paris for the first time in 1880 at just 19 years of age, and for the second time in 1883. He was fascinated by life in the French metropolis and created his first paintings of street scenes. After stays in Düsseldorf, Brussels, Paris, London and Munich, Ury lived in Berlin from 1887. In addition to landscapes, urban subjects became his characteristic main motif, which permeated his entire oeuvre. He was interested in the changing light situations at different times of day and year, as well as in nocturnal light sources and light reflections, which he often composed in a particularly atmospheric way. Ury remained a loner in the Berlin art scene, which for years was dominated above all by Max Liebermann as chairman of the Berlin Secession. The latter tried to block Ury's career and his increasing success. It was not until 1911, under Liebermann's successor Lovis Corinth, that Lesser Ury was able to exhibit regularly and successfully in the Secession. In 1921 he was even made an honorary member. Ury did not travel to Paris again until 1928, 45 years after his last stay there. Full of zest for action, he now created numerous works here, in which his entire artistically mature skill was concentrated. Shortly after his trip to Paris, Ury's health deteriorated due to a heart attack. In 1931, the Berlin National Gallery and Secession wanted to honor Lesser Ury and his extensive life's work on his 70th birthday, but the artist died three weeks earlier in his studio. In March 1928, the works newly created in Paris are shown at the large successful solo exhibition "New Pictures from Two World Cities. Paris and Berlin" at the Berlin Kunstkammer Martin Wasservogel. The critic Adolph Donath wrote enthusiastically in the Berliner Tageblatt on March 26: "They are still quite fresh, for Ury painted them only in these March days on the Seine. (...) In one breath, as if in ecstasy, he painted street after street, bridge after bridge, square after square there. It is a collection of special importance. For we are of the opinion that since Monet and Sisley Paris in its unique air and its unique shimmer of light has not been captured so genuinely by any painter as by the Berlin Lesser Ury. (...) We know it to his credit that he was the first in Berlin who knew how to force the luminaristic effects of the big city (...)." The work offered here, "Seinequai in the Fog," beautifully captures the unique mood of the foggy, damp light of the March sun so intriguingly described by Donath. The dark trees on the banks of the Seine lead diagonally into the center of the picture, where we can only guess the end of the great street on the horizon - all contours seem to dissolve in the pale backlight into numerous splashes of blue, gray, yellow, orange and pink. With French painting needs label on verso. Firmly mounted in the frame. Not unframed for cataloging. With an expert opinion by Dr. Sibylle Groß, Berlin, dated 22.3.2009. The painting will be included in the catalog raisonné of paintings, pastels, gouaches and watercolors by Lesser Ury, which is currently in preparation. Exhibition: New paintings from two world cities. Paris and Berlin, Kunstkammer Martin Wasservogel, Berlin 1928; Lesser Ury - Gedenk-Ausstellung, Nationalgalerie, Berlin 1931, cat. no. 145 ("Seine-Quai"). Provenance: from the artist's estate, with the round label of the estate inventory on the verso (with the very faintly legible stamp imprint "Inv. No./Mappe/NACHLASS/LESSER URY" and the handwritten chalk number "129") as well as with the stamp imprint "NACHLASS/LESSER URY"; Galerie Paul Cassirer, Lesser Ury - Nachlass-Auktion, Berlin 21.10.1932, lot 118; Galerie Franke, Berlin (1932); Galerie Neumeister, Munich; private collection, Pfalz; Lempertz, Cologne 28.5.2009, lot 222; private collection, Germany. Taxation: differential VAT: Margin Scheme