
Julius Lessing (20 September 1843 – 14 March 1908) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
art historian and the first director of the
Berliner Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin).
Life
Lessing attended university in Berlin and
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
, after which he taught History of Decorative Arts in Berlin. In 1872 he was responsible for a large exhibition of decorative art in Berlin, which featured objects from the royal collection as well as privately held items, under the patronage of Crown Prince Frederick. The success of this exhibition led to the founding of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin, which Lessing led until his death in 1908.
In 1894 he published his ''Neue Wege'' (''New Ways'') article in the journal ''Kunstgewerbeblatt'', praising new materials in architecture.
[''Art and the German Bourgeoisie: Alfred Lichtwark and Modern Painting in Hamburg'', 1886-1914. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002, p. 13]
He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Friedhof Schönhauser Allee. He was the grandfather of photographer
Marianne Breslauer
Marianne Breslauer (married surname Feilchenfeldt, 20 November 1909 – 7 February 2001) was a German photographer, photojournalist and pioneer of street photography during the Weimar Republic.
Life
Marianne was born in Berlin, the daught ...
.
Selected works
* ''Das Kunstgewerbe auf der Wiener Weltausstellung''. E. Wasmuth Berlin 1874
* ''Altorientalische Teppichmuster: Nach Bildern und Originalen des XV. - XVI. Jahrhunderts'', Berlin 1877 (republished: Wasmuth 1926); translated into English as ''Ancient Oriental Carpet Patterns after Pictures and Originals of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries''. London: H. Sotheran & Co., 1879
* ''Berichte von der Pariser Weltausstellung 1878''. E. Wasmuth Berlin 1878
* ''Die Silberarbeiten von
Antonius Eisenhoit aus Warburg; Lichtdruck von Albert Frisch'', Berlin 1879
* ''Vorbilder-Hefte aus dem Kgl. Kunstgewerbemuseum''. Wasmuth, Berlin 1888–1905
References
External links
Dictionary of Art Historians
1843 births
1908 deaths
19th-century German Jews
19th-century German historians
German male non-fiction writers
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