L. S. Lowry
"I don't pretend to be a gentleman, but I am entitled to paint what I see."
Lowry's urban landscapes populated by the famous "matchstalk men" rank among the most popular and recognisable works in Modern British art. Only revered as a truly great artist after his death in 1976, his work remains hugely influential and in 2000 his legacy was cemented further by the opening of The Lowry theatre and gallery complex in Manchester. His work achieved a new auction record in 2022 when Going to the Match sold for £7.8 million at Christie's in London.
After leaving school, Lowry worked as a rent collector for the Pall Mall Company. In his leisure time he took lessons in freehand drawing, ultimately securing a place at the Manchester School of Art in 1905. He studied under the French Impressionist Pierre Adolph Valette, an experience that was to prove hugely influential in his development as an artist. He continued his studies at the Royal Technical Institute in Salford, building a distinctive portfolio of work that focused on the industrial landscape in which he lived.
His fascination was sparked by chance when he happened to miss a train connection at Pendlebury station. Waiting on the platform, he had a revelation: "I saw the Acme Company's spinning mill: the huge, black framework of rows of yellow-lit windows [...] against the sad, damp-charged, afternoon sky. The mill was turning out hundreds of little, pinched figures, heads bent down [...] I watched this scene - which I'd looked at many times without seeing - with rapture".
His initial treatments of the subject were dark and sombre, but after the Guardian journalist D. B. Taylor suggested he lighten the palette of his work, he adopted the stark lead white backgrounds and selection of five colours - ivory black, vermilion, prussian blue, yellow ochre and flake white - that would come to define his practice.
His subjects, although never grim, began to brighten considerably after the War, and he increasingly chose to depict people in their leisure time as well as at work. Some of his most sought-after images depict the excitement of crowds at football matches, and families enjoying a visit to the seaside.
Lowry received his first solo exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery in Mayfair in 1939 and in 1962 was elected a Royal Academician. He also served as a visiting tutor at the Slade School of Fine Art.
