The Cart
Signed Print

The Cart is one of Lowry’s occasional completely simplistic, minimal pieces. The vastness and space of the road and two figures against a neutral sky is an arresting scene. It was inspired by a view of a road in Denbigh. Although different from his bustling Manchester cityscapes, Lowry’s departure from industrialism isn’t a true departure. His first works were landscapes - often mistakenly labelled as a self-taught artist, Lowry in fact studied underAdolphe Valette, who was a French Impressionist. ‘I cannot overestimate his effect on me,’ Lowry later said. Lowry could never be defined as an Impressionist per se, but the tradition of classical landscape often reappears in some of the more serene, peaceful scenes he painted. The landscape depicted in The Cart is a lonely one, like that in many of the rural pictures. Even though there are two men and a horse, each figure is isolated, leaning away from each other and enveloped in the sweeping curves of the road.