Sale: 539 / Modern Art Day Sale, June 10. 2023 in Munich Lot 300

 

300
Lesser Ury
Der blaue Berg, Ca. 1900/10.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 25,000 / $ 27,000
Sold:
€ 53,340 / $ 57,607

(incl. surcharge)
Der blaue Berg. Ca. 1900/10.
Oil on canvas.
With the hand-written estate number "487" on the reverse. 79 x 97 cm (31.1 x 38.1 in).
[EH].

• Intensive color atmosphere in an unusually large format.
• Ury sums up his impressions to create a lanscape characterized by an overwhelming force.
• Lesser Ury, along with Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth, was a protagonist of German Impressionism.
• A work with a fascinating history
.

Accompanied by a photo expertise issued by Dr. Sibylle Groß, Catalog Raisonnée Lesser Ury, Berlin, from May 31, 2023.
We are grateful to Anna B. Rubin, HCPO New York, for her kind expert advice.

PROVENANCE: Artist's estate (1931, estate number 487, with the label on the reverse).
"Meisener", no place (according to the catalog of the Cassirer-Archive, acquired from the above estate in 1932, possible an alias for the Lesser Ury estate).
Artist's estate (until January 31, 1933).
Sophie Bieber, Berlin (inherited from Lesser Ury, from the estate on January 31, 1933).
Presumably Erich Bieber, Berlin/Eichwalde (inherited from the above in 1935).
Private collection Switzerland (until 2004).
Private collection Berlin.
Private collection Brandenburg

The work is free from restitution claims. The offer is made subject to an amicable agreement with the heirs after Sophie Bieber.

LITERATURE: Inventory liste of the estate of Lesser Ury: No. 487: Waldweg, oil, 78 x 96 cm. SMB-ZA, Berlin, I NG 858, fol. 377.
Der künstlerische Nachlaß von Lesser Ury. Ausstellung und Versteigerung, Paul Cassirer, Berlin, October 13-15 and 21, 1932, sale on October 21, 1932, auction led by Paul Cassirer, cat. nor. 64.
Hand-annotated protocol of the catalog of above auction, October 21, 1932, Paul Cassirer Archive & Walter Feilchenfeldt Archive, Zürich (https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48864#0043).
List of alloted pastels from the estate of Lesser Ury, January 31, 1933, privately-owned, New York (estate of Kurt Ury).
Villa Grisebach Auktionen, Berlin, auction 118, June 12, 2004, no. 142.

This extraordinary landscape painting, which might have been created during the artist's trip to Italy, emanates a very special atmosphere. The reddish-golden shimmering light of the rising sun, the hilltop bathed in the deep blue of the backlight, the brown-greenish meadow with the delicately dabbed flowers combine to form an almost abstract-looking surface composition that, considering the time it was created, seems extraordinarily modern. Intersected by a deserted path and - a well-known topos of landscape painting - almost human-looking trees, this atmospheric landscape in late summer, almost autumn, breathes a romantic melancholy interwoven with the quiet hope of a dawning day.
The extraordinary painting with its sensitive and meaningful mood lighting has a no less extraordinary history of origin. When the artist died suddenly in 1931, the work was in his estate. The valuable inventory of paintings was first taken from the studio apartment to the Berlin Nationalgalerie, and some particularly valuable works - 129 paintings and a large number of works on paper - were exhibited at the renowned Galerie Paul Cassirer in 1932 and then offered for auction. "Der blaue Berg" was lot number 64. The auction protocol mentions a "Meisener" who submitted an underbid, his identity, however, remains a myth. Neither the entire estate of Galerie Cassirer, nor any other relevant documents provide proof of some Mr. "Meisener". It can be assumed, that the sale never took place and that it may even be just an alias for Lesser Ury's community of heirs. In any case, our painting went back into their ownership on January 31, 1933. A document prepared in context of the distribution of the estate to the large community of heirs testifies to the handing over of the painting (estate number 487) to Sophie Bieber.
At the time, the widow Sophie Bieber, a cousin of the artist and part of the large community of heirs, lived with her only son Erich and his wife in a large apartment in Berlin-Kreuzberg. However, the Nazi persecution changed the life of the Jewish family. In 1934, Erich lost his job because of his Jewish origins, and in 1934 and 1935 Sophie sold several of Lesser Ury's works at auctions before she committed suicide in the fall of 1935. Erich was lucky to survive the Nazi era, as he was protected from prosecution by his marriage to Christin Clara. When and under what circumstances the Bieber family parted with Lesser Ury's painting "Der blaue Berg" and how the profound landscape painting ended up in a Swiss private collection can no longer be clarified today.
We are happy about the opportunity to offer this extraordinary painting in best agreement with the heirs of Sophie and Erich Bieber and without pending claims for restitution. [AT]



300
Lesser Ury
Der blaue Berg, Ca. 1900/10.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 25,000 / $ 27,000
Sold:
€ 53,340 / $ 57,607

(incl. surcharge)