Lot 260 Dα

Presumably created directly after the war, around 1919/1920, this charming charcoal drawing presents one of Lesser Ury's elegant street scenes from Berlin, which still continue to fascinate today. Even in this fragile medium that seems to have been breathed on to the page, the artist masterfully succeeds in generating an impressionistic atmosphere that nearly evokes “colour”: an illusion created by means of stylistic devices and the effects achieved through the handling of the charcoal and line. The drawing additionally takes on its own irresistible charm through its momentary quality and our sense of the motif's lightness. The composition opens itself up to our gaze and leads down the winterly boulevard; somewhat in the distance we recognise the traffic of the black carriages, and we experience the moment used to cross the street with the little dog. Everything is reflected on the damp boulevard, the setting of the Tiergarten's tall trees stands there as though it were inked into the damp fog, and a slender female figurine wrapped up in a fashionable fur is just crossing the street.
It is presumably no coincidence that the sheet is dedicated to the Berlin factory-owner Wilhelm Kirschner, co-owner of the Strelitzer & Kirschner company, which produced women's coats. As Sybille Groß explains in her expert report, Wilhelm Kirschner was part of Lesser Ury's circle of private collectors. Even if the nature and extent of his art collection can no longer be documented, it was possible to determine that Kirschner owned a number of other drawings by the artist - perhaps a segment of his oeuvre to which he devoted particular attention.
At the same time as this work, around 1920, the artist created a lithograph (Rosenbach 49): the drawing used to transfer it to the lithographic stone can now be found in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.