Critical Review
As an ardent admirer and player of sport, particularly football and cricket, it is one of the most significant reoccurring subject matters throughout Lowry’s oeuvre. In his early years, he was a frequent visitor to The Bolton Wanderers football club located in Burnden Park just outside of Pendlebury, which is the scenery he references directly in Going to The Match. Albeit his style being realistic and the subject itself autobiographical in this piece, Lowry also incorporates imaginary elements and various symbols from his unique vocabulary into the landscape, making it part-real part-fragment of his own vision. He referred to these as dreamscapes.
Going to the Match highlights Lowry’s exceptional skill in representing the movement of a crowd, of a collective of peoples – as Sir Ian McKellen, one the artist’s most prominent collectors, points out:
“Each individual is on his/her own journey across the canvas yet leaning to form the crowd with its own collective identity. (…) Going about our business or pleasure, we are all subjects of his vision.”
