L. S. Lowry Art for Sale: Prints & Originals

L.
S. Lowry

Active pre- and post-war, L. S. Lowry’s melancholic paintings of industrial North-West England are typically categorised as Naïve art. If you’re looking for original Lowry prints and editions for sale or would like to sell, request a complimentary valuation and browse our network’s most in-demand works.

Biography

Industrial landscapes, his hometown of Lancashire and ‘matchstick men’ characterise the work of L.S Lowry, a key figure in 20th century British painting. Lowry is best known for his distinctive painterly style and a history of depicting England's North West industrial districts. Now a household name and with a significant Mancunian legacy - including the eponymously named Lowry Gallery - his ambition was to 'put the industrial scene on the map because nobody [before] had seriously done it.'

Born in 1887 in Stretford Lancashire, Lowry spent the majority of his childhood in the Manchester suburb of Rusholme and moved to the industrial town of Pendlebury in 1909 aged 22. An untrained artist, Lowry’s initial paintings were filled with figures that cast no shadow and lacked any weather effects. Though these characteristics later became distinctive of his works, they also, at first, drew negative comments from critics, who called him a naive “Sunday painter”.

Industrial Landscapes & Sporting Matches

Lowry’s success did not come overnight. It was only towards the start of the 1930s, after both of his parents had passed, that the artist began to enjoy some recognition. In 1932, Lowry had his work accepted into the Royal Academy, and in 1939 he held his first solo exhibition in London in the Lefevre Gallery.

Today, Lowry is considered one of the most important artists of 20th century England. Some of the most popular works by the artist have involved scenes of industrial landscapes, such as his Going to Work (1943) or Coming from the Mill (1930), both depicting workers busy going to or coming back from industrial factories. While the latter was based on a pastel drawing the artist made in 1917, the former was commissioned to Lowry at the height of World War II by the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC) to celebrate the crucial role that heavy industry was playing throughout the War.

Under the hammer, Lowry’s depictions of sporting matches have also attracted much attention. Now one of his most famous works, Going to the Match (1928) sold for £2,919,000 at Sotheby’s London on 29 June 2021. The painting depicts football fans rushing towards the turnstiles of a football stadium that is already buzzing before kick-off. The background of terraced houses and factory smoke indicates where these fans have just arrived from. Recognised as the “archetypal Lowry”, the work was one of the artist’s earliest depictions of a rugby match and a sporting match in general. In 1972, Lowry also created 300 prints from this image, which remain some of the most sought after Lowry prints on the market.

Lowry’s earliest paintings bear a significantly different tone to his later, more well known, urban scenes. In fact, during his training, Lowry’s paintings were far more impressionistic and dark in appearance, with his first recorded painting Still Life (1906) demonstrating this. Lowry also created many portraits during his early practice, including Portrait Of The Artist’s Mother (1912) and Portrait Of The Artist’s Father (1910) alongside many of the artist himself.
His works from 1930-1938 saw his rise to prominence as an artist, and consisted of his characteristic industrial scenes. It was during this period that one of his earlier studies of the Ancoat area, A Street Scene, (St. Simon’s Church,) (1928) was the first of his works purchased by the Salford Museum and Art Gallery.
Lowry remained employed as a rent collector and clerk for the majority of his working life, choosing to paint during the evenings. Called a 'Sunday Painter' by critics, in part due to this practice, but also due to his painterly style, Lowry, unperturbed, countered: 'I am a Sunday painter who paints every day of the week.' During World War Two, he volunteered as a fire watcher three nights a week in Manchester, and the damage done to the city as a result of the Blitz provided ample inspiration for some of his later works. Similarly, his love of football and dedication to Manchester City was reflected in his various studies of football matches and fans.
To this day, Lowry holds the record for most rejections of British Honours, (five times) including a knighthood which he was offered in 1968. He told Prime Minister at the time, Harold Wilson: 'All my life I have felt most strongly against social distinction of any kind.'

At a joint-first place for the most expensive Lowry painting at auction is Piccadilly Circus, which also achieved £5.6 million when it was offered at Christie’s 20th Century British & Irish Art Evening Sale in London on 16 November 2011 – nearly half a year after the sale of The Football Match. The painting had come to auction for the first time, after being hidden in the same private collection for 35 years. It was offered for auction again at Sotheby’s in London on 25 March 2014, where it sold for a slightly lower £5.1 million.

Lowry rarely painted London scenes and Piccadilly Circus is one of only two works to depict the landmark. The painting was formerly owned by entrepreneur Lord Forte and then A.J. Thompson, an esteemed collector who only bought works by Lowry.