Aleksander Lesser

Funeral of victims of Polish protest rally in Warsaw

Aleksander Lesser (born May 13, 1814 in Warsaw , † March 13, 1884 in Krakow ) was a Polish history painter and art critic .

He was born as one of the twelve children of the merchant Levi Lesser (1791-1870) and Rose Loewenstein (1790-1840). He was married to Julia Bergson (1839-1918).

Lesser began his artistic training in the Royal Prussian Lyceum in Warsaw with Aleksander Kokular . He continued his studies from 1830 to 1831 at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Warsaw under Antoni Brodowski .

After the defeat of the November Uprising , the university was closed and Lesser continued his studies from 1832 to 1835 at the Dresden Art Academy with Moritz Retzsch and Karl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein . He completed his training from July 8, 1835 to 1846 at the Royal Academy of Arts in Munich with Peter Cornelius , Heinrich Hess and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld .

Lesser dealt almost exclusively with historical painting. In his paintings he depicted the most important events in the history of Poland. a. a series of portraits of all the kings of Poland. Lesser considered himself a Polish patriot of the Mosaic faith. In addition to ecclesiastical images of saints, he created scenes from the history of the Jewish community in Poland.

He also worked as an art historian and art critic. From 1859 he supplied articles and illustrations to the Samuel Orgelbrangds Allgemeine Enzyklopadie. He also worked for the weekly newspaper “Kłosy” (ears of corn). He illustrated the works of Adam Mickiewicz and Antoni Malczewski . Lesser also dealt with lithography .

Aleksander Lesser was a member of the Polish Academy of Learning in Krakow.

literature

• Lesser, Aleksander . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 23 : Leitenstorfer – Mander . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1929, p. 127-128 .
• The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe ( digital copy ; English)

Web links

Commons : Aleksander Lesser  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Aleksander Lesser in: Matriculation Book Academy Munich ( digitized version )
• Aleksander Lesser. Biographical data and works in the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
• Aleksander Lesser in: Culture.pl ( digitized ; Polish)