Sunset at Lake Grunewald

Sunset at Lake Grunewald of 1900 represents Lesser Ury at his most lyrical, depicting one of the forests and lakes on the western edge of Berlin that provided the city's population with an escape from the urban density he otherwise favored as a subject. Grunewald — 'green forest' — had been a royal hunting ground and remained a vast wooded recreational area accessible from the western suburbs. At sunset, its lakes became mirrors for the dramatic color effects that Ury had developed in his urban scenes — the same interest in artificial and natural light translated to the natural world. Ury was a Berlin Jewish painter who had spent periods in Paris absorbing Impressionist technique; his Berlin street scenes, café interiors, and now this lake sunset show a consistent preoccupation with the effects of light on water and wet surfaces. The date of 1900 places this at the height of his mature period, when his technique of pastel or oil on various supports was fully developed.

The sunset sky is rendered with broad strokes capturing warm gradation from the horizon's oranges and pinks through cooler blues at the zenith. The lake mirrors these tones in broken horizontal strokes. Silhouetted tree forms against the luminous sky provide the composition's structural contrast.