Leipziger Straße - Lesser Yury Postcard.

Juri Lesser was a German impressionist painter and printmaker active from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. He is particularly known for his poetic portrayals of urban scenes, such as Berlin cityscapes, rainy days, twilight scenes, and nighttime cafes, skillfully capturing the effects of light. Also known as the "painter of Berlin," his works possess a unique atmosphere and sense of color, reflecting the hustle and bustle and loneliness of urban life at the time.

Lesser Yuri Biography

• He was born on November 7, 1861, in Birnbaum, Posen province, Kingdom of Prussia (now Miedźchúd, Poland) to a Jewish family.
• Around 1872, he moved to Berlin with his family.
• In 1879, he enrolled in the Düsseldorf Art Academy and began studying painting. He then continued his training in various parts of Europe, including Brussels, Paris, Stuttgart, and Munich. In Paris, he studied under Jean-François Raffaelli and Gustave Boulanger, and was influenced by the Impressionists.
• He returned to Berlin in 1887 and continued to work there. At first he painted traditional subjects, but gradually he began to focus on urban landscapes, especially Berlin's street corners, cafes, and night views.
• In 1893, he participated in the exhibition of the Society of Eleven, which included Max Liebermann.
• In the early 1900s, he exhibited at exhibitions of the Berlin Secession, but due to his difficult personality he maintained a certain distance from the mainstream art world.
• Although he enjoyed some recognition during his lifetime, he never achieved the widespread fame of his contemporary, Max Liebermann.
• In 1921 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts.
• He died in Berlin on October 18, 1931, at the age of 69. After his death, although his works were not deemed "degenerate" under the Nazi regime, because he was a Jewish painter, they disappeared from public view, and many of them were scattered or destroyed.

Representative works

• Berlin Street in Rain (prolific production, especially in the 1920s)
• "Unter den Linden" (many works)
• Potsdamer Platz by Night (1920s)
• "Im Café Bauer" (Many produced, especially from the late 1880s to the early 1900s)
• Jerusalem (series of biblical landscapes, 1920s)
• "Self-Portrait" (many produced)

The Art of Lesser Yuri

While a part of German Impressionism, Lesser Jurij's art is characterized by his own unique poetic sentiment and urban sensibility. He preferred to paint the landscapes and atmospheres of modern cities, such as the hustle and bustle of the metropolis of Berlin, the gleam of rain-soaked streets, the nightscapes woven by gas lamps and car headlights, and the bustle of bustling cafes. While his brushstrokes are sometimes quick and show the Impressionist trait of attempting to capture fleeting impressions of light and color, he also exhibits a more subjective and emotional approach to his subjects.

He particularly explored the effects of light under specific weather conditions, such as rain, fog, and twilight, creating melancholic and poetic scenes. His "Rain in Berlin" series is his most famous theme, depicting light reflected on wet roads and people passing by under umbrellas with a unique sense of color. He excelled in both oil and pastel, and the soft texture of these works contributed to enhancing the atmosphere of his works. In his later years, he also painted biblical scenes and landscapes of his hometown, but his most acclaimed works are his cityscapes of Berlin. His works capture the atmosphere of Berlin from the end of the century to the Weimar Republic period, alluding to the loneliness and transience of people living in modern cities.

Lesser Yuri's influence and later recognition

Although Lesser Jurij was highly regarded by art lovers and critics in Berlin during his lifetime, he never achieved the leading position or widespread fame of his contemporaries, especially Max Liebermann. This is said to have been due in part to his difficult personality and tendency to isolate himself.

After his death, with the rise of Nazi Germany, Jurij, who was Jewish, suffered the tragic fate of having his works removed from public collections, exported overseas, or even destroyed, which meant that his name was temporarily forgotten in art history.

However, after World War II, especially since the 1970s, Jury Lesser's art has been rediscovered and reevaluated. His Berlin scenes have come to be recognized as evoking memories of a lost city and as important examples of the diversity of Impressionism. Today, Jury Lesser is internationally acclaimed as a painter who established a unique position within German Impressionism and for his poetic portrayal of urban life in Berlin in the early 20th century. Keywords such as "German Impressionism," "Berlin streetscapes," "night scenes," "rain scenes," "light effects," and "pastel paintings" are important elements in understanding Jury's art. His works are housed in museums throughout Germany and around the world and continue to fascinate many.