Lot 310 Dα

This interior of a Berlin cafe is a strongly expressive example of the atmospheric concentration of Lesser Ury's pastel drawings. With casual ease the painter has established the layered pictorial space: behind a table to the left in the foreground, there is a coat stand flanked by men in the middle- and background. Here Ury has made use of a composition previously known from two other versions - an oil painting as well as another pastel (see Sibylle Groß in her expert report, Berlin 2017). The depicted historical location cannot be determined with certainty, although it is clearly the reading room of one of Berlin's cafes, whose selections of titles from the German and international press opened up a window to the world for their patrons in the early twentieth century.
Lesser Ury expertly augments the apparent ephemerality of the selected view and the casualness of the gaze in his expressive depiction of the window pane and cigar smoke. Ury's unique handling of space and light are plain to see here, and in the spontaneity of the painterly gesture they further underscore the exceptional quality of our pastel.

For this lot, special conditions are applicable (legend "D" according to the conditions of sale).