Crime Lake L S Lowry

L.S. LOWRY, CRIME LAKE, SIGNED OFFSET LITHOGRAPH PRINTED IN COLOURS, EDITION OF 500, 1971

Crime Lake is one of Lowry’s busy lakeside pictures, depicting a joyful crowd and many floating boats around Crime Lake, officially called Crime Bank Reservoir, which at that time was a well-known spot to visit during bank holidays between Droylsden and Failsworth. The lake came to be through a canal construction around 1794 and had been a popular destination with residents of nearby towns since. The word ‘crime’ doesn’t in fact refer to any bad incident, it is merely a local expression meaning field or meadow. This painting is from the year 1942, currently in a private collection.

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ABOUT L.S. LOWRY

L.S. Lowry is a much-loved British painter known for pictures that capture urban life in industrial north west England, most notably during the 1920s. Born in 1887 in Stretford, Lancashire, Laurence Stephen Lowry later moved to Pendlebury near Manchester where he lived and worked for over 40 years. The area, which he at first detested, was covered in factories and cotton mills that Lowry would soon obsessively depict. His fascination with the industrial landscapes and the people that inhabited them was inspired by a missed train. Standing on the platform at Pendlebury station, Lowry would later write of the view of the Acme Spinning Company’s mill, saying “I watched this scene – which I’d look at many times without seeing – with rapture.” Learn more about L. S. Lowry.