L. S. LOWRY, FRANCIS TERRACE, SIGNED LITHOGRAPH, EDITION OF 75, 1969
Francis Terrace is a lithograph print from 1969 by L. S. Lowry that shows a sketch of a street close with terraced houses on either side and a smokestack in the background. This is a typical scene of working class life, with children playing with one another on the brick road between the houses and their parents watching over them from their front doors.
Speaking of why he was drawn to depicting scenes, Lowry wrote to a friend, “To my loss, country lanes have been foreign to me, for quite a while past, for alas my recreation seems to have developed into drifting amongst all the back streets etc I can come across.”
Lowry was interested in the people whose lives he was trying to capture, and created over 8,000 drawings like this one, recording the everyday nuances that he saw around him. Working as a rent collector during the day, and an artist at night, Lowry had a unique perspective into the lives of working class people in the North East of England. He was not working class himself but came across poverty everyday as he collected rent from those who could not afford it, hence why he was drawn to capturing this subject matter.
Discover more L.S. Lowry artworks.
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.
