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 **Ge ...

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-Ruhr r ...

, 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 daughter ...

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 Anton Eisenhoit (sometimes Eisenhout), a German painter and engraving, engraver, flourished at Rome about 1590. He was a native of Warburg, and was still living in 1619. It appears that he has been miscalled ''Eisenhart'' by Johann Friedrich Chris ...

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 {{Germany-art-historian-stub