The majority of the 30 oils, priced from £85,000 to £1.1m, have come from one collection.
Built up over the past 15 years via Richard Green, it covers the artist’s output from the 1930s, with the classic, peopled industrial scene The interval, through to the simple but striking image of 1962, Three children.
While all the works in this captivating exhibition, which continues until June 12, are worthy of contemplation, one canvas in particular captures everything we associate with an archetypal Lowry.
This complex, panoramic composition, A Lancashire Town, has so much that attracts the eye, particularly the tall building on the left with the sloping roof.
Exhibited at the 1951 Lowry retrospective at Salford City Art Gallery and illustrated in LS Lowry: Conversation Pieces by Andras Kalman and Andrew Lambirth, this stunning work, painted in the artist’s austere basic palette of Prussian blue, vermillion, yellow ochre, ivory, black and flake white, carries a price of £1.1m.
IF the stunning Richard Green exhibition is not enough for Lowryholics, then Christie’s King Street have a dozen pencil drawings and nine oils by the artist in their 20th Century British Art sale on June 4.
Offered as one lot is a well-worn, stuffed toy Pooh Bear and Lowry’s 12 x 9in (30.5 x 22.8cm) oil-on-canvas of the subject. The bear belonged to the daughter of one of the artist’s friends, and when Lowry stayed with the family during Christmas 1945 he used Pooh as a model for the painting.
The lot carries an estimate of £12,000-18,000.
Six of the best shows.... and every one a Lowry
TO mount six major selling exhibitions in the space of eight years of paintings by iconic British 20th century artist L.S. Lowry (1887-1976) is, by any standards, impressive. Nonetheless, this is exactly what New Bond Street dealer Richard Green has done. His latest Lowry showcase opens this Wednesday, May 19.
