Unter den Linden mit Droschken im Regen

Unter den Linden mit Droschken im Regen (Unter den Linden with Horse-Drawn Cabs in the Rain), painted around 1896, revisits the rainy boulevard subject Ury had first explored in 1888 and demonstrates his ongoing commitment to the same optical scenario across multiple canvases. The Droschken — horse-drawn cabs — were the dominant form of hired transport in Berlin until the spread of motor taxis from around 1907 onward; their presence in the rain creates moving dark masses with glistening wet surfaces, umbrella-carrying fares, and the specific sound and smell of horses on wet cobblestones that was the sensory texture of late nineteenth-century urban life. Ury's attention to these vehicles is consistent across his Berlin street paintings: the cab's shining lacquered body, the horse's wet coat, the cabman on his box in the rain are elements of the period's street life that he preserved in paint before the internal combustion engine rendered them obsolete. The c. 1896 date places this work in his most productive period for Berlin nocturnes.

The horse-drawn cabs provide moving solid masses in the composition — dark bodies with specific highlights on wet lacquer and harness metal — that contrast with the more diffuse and dissolving quality of the street reflections. Ury handles the horses' wet coats with attention to the specific sheen of rain-soaked animal surface, a different optical problem from polished carriage bodywork. The reflections of cab lamps in the wet pavement produce the characteristic elongated amber stripes of his nocturnes.