Lesser Ury was born Leo Lesser Ury, the third son of a baker in Birnbaum. After the death of his father in 1872, Ury moved to Berlin with his family. In 1878, he quit school to begin his apprenticeship as a tradesman. In 1879, he quit this apprenticeship and started studying at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. This began a decade of travels to several art schools throughout Europe.
In 1880, he traveled to Brussels and Antwerp. In 1881, he spent several months in Paris where he made his first attempts at painting city scenes, interiors and floral still lifes. In 1882, he studied with Jean-Francois Portaels at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Artes in Brussels. In 1883, he moved to Paris to study with Jules Joseph Lefebvre. After being rejected by the Akademie in Berlin in 1885, he instead studied in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. In 1886, he studied with Johann Caspar Herterich at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich. In 1887, he finally returned to Berlin where he began a friendly relationship with Max Liebermann.
In 1889, Ury had his first show at Fritz Gurlitt's gallery. The public and the press criticized the show but Adolph von Menzel was still able to convince the Academy to award him the Michael-Beer-Preis which allowed Ury to travel to Rome and Capri. Upon his return in 1893, Gurlitt held a one-man show featuring 67 of his paintings. Unfortunately, Ury's relationship with Liebermann dissolves and they become lifelong enemies.
In 1893, Ury joined the Munich Secession. While in Munich, he worked for the journal called Das Narrenschiff and met Hermann Stuck in 1898. In 1901, he moved back to Berlin. In 1903, he met Meta Streiter who was his model and muse. In 1910, he participated in the Berliner Kunstaustellung. In 1914, he began working extensively in the graphic medium. Under the encouragement of Lovis Corinth, Ury had his first exhibition with the Berlin Secession in 1915. In 1916, Paul Cassirer held a successful retrospective
