LOWRY PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS & PRINTS Paintings and Drawings 02

A River Scene, on the Clyde 04 Boy with Bucket 18 Figures in a Park 06 Clifton, 20 Family Group 08 A Country Lane 22 GroupCONTENTS of Children 10 Farm Cottages with Haystack 24 Factory Gate 12 Industrial Landscape 26 Queen’s Dock, Glasgow 14 Fishing Boat 28 Six Figures 16 Limited Edition Prints 2

Going to the Match 4 Two Brothers 48 The Football Match 6 His Family 50 Mill Scene 8 Group of Children 52 Britain at Play 10 Meeting Point 54 The Reference Library 12 View of a Town 56 St. Simon’s Church 14 Huddersfield 58 St. Mary’s, Beswick 16 Three Men and a Cat 60 Burford Church 18 Man on the Wall 62 St. Luke’s Church 20 People Standing About 64 Great Ancoats Street 22 Man Holding Child 66 Mrs Swindells’ Picture 24 Industrial Scene 68 The Fever Van 26 Lonely house 70 The Cart 28 Industrial town 72 The Contraption 30 Peel Park 74 Station Approach 32 Berwick-upon-Tweed 76 The Level Crossing 34 Landscape with Farm Buildings 78 Sailing Boats 36 Our Town 80 Ferry Boats 38 Market Scene in a Northern Town 82 The Harbour 40 Crime Lake 84 The Beach 42 Industrial Panorama 86 Street Scene 44 The Pond 88 The Family 46 Woman with Beard 90

Whitewall Galleries is delighted to present an exhibition of work from L.S.Lowry, one of the greatest British artists of the twentieth century.

Lowry was a highly individual artist with a unique style; his work spans the first half of the twentieth century and records with sensitivity and wit his own personal view of the people, industry, culture and architecture of Northern Britain. In the last twenty years he has become one of the UK’s most highly prized artists. While in 1999 the highest price for one of his paintings had been £1.9 million, the most recent public valuation was between £6 million and £10 million.

These highly sought-after masterpieces range from classic industrial scenes to local landscapes and landmarks, and represent a superb opportunity for investors, collectors or first time buyers to acquire a piece of our heritage from a twentieth century master.

01 02 LIMITED EDITION PRINTS

03 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Going to the Match Signed, limited edition of 300 After the 1953 painting of the same name (Collection: The Lowry collection, , on loan from the Professional Footballers’ Association.) Image size 21 x 27 inches (53.34 x 68.6 cm) Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published in 1972 by The Medici Society Printed in Austria

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press 1979, p.22

Going to the Match is one of Lowry’s most sought after signed limited edition prints. Lowry’s original 1928 painting Going to the Match was acquired by the Professional Footballers’ Association in 1999 for approximately £2,000,000. One of several football subjects painted by Lowry, Going to the Match depicts Burnden Park, the home of The Wanderers football club, a ground only a few miles from Pendlebury and often visited by Lowry as a young man. As the Lowry collector Sir Ian McKellern has commented “until Lowry painted his crowds, no other artist had recorded how people (and animals) look and behave en masse. Each individual is on his/her own journey across the canvas yet leaning to form the crowd with its own collective identity. Once you have seen how Lowry saw us, you cannot ever see or be in a football crowd, nor watch kids playing, workers leaving the factory, queuing, or stopping to chat or hear the fairground barker, without saying, “Lowry! It’s just like a Lowry painting!” Going about our business or pleasure, we are all subjects of his vision.’ Sir Ian McKellen, ‘My lifelong passion for L.S. Lowry’, The Telegraph, 21st April 2011

04 05 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) The Football Match After a drawing executed in 1946 Signed and numbered limited edition print on heavy cotton wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 9 x 14 inches (22.3 x 35.5 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” lower right Published in 1973 by Harold Riley Bears the publisher’s stamp lower left

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.24

06 07 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Mill Scene After the original 1959 oil painting of the same name Limited edition print on heavy cotton wove paper 12 x 16 inches Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right Not Stamped (as issued) from the edition of 750 Published by The Sunday Observer newspaper

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.23

08 09 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Britain at Play After the 1943 painting of the same name in The Usher Museum, Lincoln Signed, limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 17.5 x 23.5 in. (44.45 x 59.69 cm.) Stamped by The Fine Art Trade Guild Published by Mainstone publications Printed by Beric Press Ltd.

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.35

10 11 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) The Reference Library After the original drawing of the same name Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 9.5 x 13.75 inches (24.1 x 34.9 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by Henry Donn in 1972

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979

12 13 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) St Simon’s Church After an original drawing executed in 1927 Signed and numbered limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 300 Image size: 15 x 11 inches (38 x 28 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979

Lowry made his initial sketch of St Simon’s Church in 1927 at his father’s suggestion. Generally, Robert Lowry expressed little interest in his son’s work but thought that this building, due for demolition, might appeal to him. When Lowry returned to the site, a month after making his sketch, the church was gone. The related painting in The L.S. Lowry collection in Salford, A Street Scene (St Simon’s Church), was completed in the following year.

14 15 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) St. Mary’s, Beswick After an original pencil drawing executed in 1927 Signed limited edition on wove paper from the edition of 500 Image size: 10.25 x 14.5 inches (26 x 37 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right Published by Henry Donn with his blindsamp

16 17 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Burford Church After a 1948 oil painting of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, North Oxfordshire Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 17 x 23 inches (43.2 x 58.5cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” lower right Published by Grove Galleries Limited, c.1970s

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.27

18 19 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) St Lukes Church, London Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size 24.25 x 18 inches Numbered and stamped by the publisher

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S. Lowry, The Scolar Press, 1979, p.30

“Until very recently I’ve been going to London a once a month for 50 year – I had an aunt there for a long time – but I did almost no work in London except for one of St Luke’s Church, Old Street. I’d been told it had the ugliest spire in the world. So naturally I had to go and look at it.” Lowry in conversation with Edwin Mullins, 1966.

20 21 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) Great Ancoats Street, Manchester After the original 1930 drawing, Great Ancoats Street, Manchester (The Lowry Collection, Salford) Signed and numbered limited edition print from the edition of 850 Image size: 10.25 x 14.25 in. (26 x 36 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right Published by Harold Riley with his blind stamp lower left

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.24

22 23 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) Mrs Swindells’ Picture After the 1967 painting of the same name Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 16 x 12 in. (41 x 30.5 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right Published by the Adam Collection Printed by Chorley and Pickersgill Ltd.

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S. Lowry, The Scolar Press, 1979, p.28

Bessie Swindells was Lowry’s housekeeper; she had arrived in 1954, to help out for two weeks and stayed until his death in 1976. She lived half a mile away and walked up the hill to The Elms every day for twenty-two years to clean the house and to do his laundry. Lowry painted the present work for her in recognition of her long years of housekeeping and friendship. Bessie told her family about the painting being created for her, and her grand-daughter insisted that it should have a cat in the picture. Lowry obliged by putting it under the fence on the right hand side, staring out at the seated dog. Bessie could not decide on a title for her picture, so Lowry named it Mrs Swindells’ Picture. The work features Albion Mill looming over the often-featured blue fence on the right hand side of the painting, with St Mary’s Church, Swinton, in the distance. This was a view that Lowry painted and adapted over a very long period, and represents one of his most popular painting landscapes.

24 25 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) The Fever Van After the 1935 painting of the same name (Collection: The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) Signed limited edition print from the edition of 700 Image size: 21.5 x 16.5 in. (55 x 42 cm.) Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by Mainstone Press, Norwich, in 1972 Printed in India by Bolton Fine Arts

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.34

The Fever Van shows an ambulance arriving to collect a patient from a small terraced house. The sufferer probably has diphtheria or scarlet fever, both highly contagious diseases and widespread in industrial Britain in the 1930s. Lowry’s treatment of the theme avoids excessive sentimentality. “Accidents interest me - I have a very queer mind you know. What fascinates me is the people they attract. The patterns those people form, and the atmosphere of tension when something has happened… Where there’s a quarrel there’s always a crowd… It’s a great draw. A quarrel or a body.”

Lowry’s great friend, the Salford artist Harold Riley recalls that Harold Wilson wanted to use The Fever Van as his Christmas card to which Lowry replied “No, I am very sorry but I would like you to realise that I don’t wish to have any political association and I’m not giving permission.” And that was that.’

26 27 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) The Cart Signed, Limited edition of 850 on wove paper After the painting of the same name from 1953 (Private collection) Image size 19.5 x 15.75 inches Signed in pencil by the artist, “L.S.Lowry” in the margin lower right Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild lower left Printed in Austria by Max Jaffe

Literature: Henry Donn, The Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p. 27 (Illustrated)

Painted in 1953 The Cart was inspired by a road Lowry had seen in Denbigh. The painting was published as a print in the early 1970s. “Landscape was one of Lowry’s first passions. Long before he discovered the industrial scene, he was recording in pencil and in pastel, country scenes from the environs of Lytham St Annes and Fylde. It is a passion to which he has returned time and again for spiritual refreshment. Had he not discovered the industrial prospect there is little doubt that he would still have made his mark, but as a major painter of nature. In later years he has used landscape, empty an dbleak, as a foil to intensify hiss sense of the ultimate loneliness of man.” (Mervyn Levy, The Painitngs of L.S.Lowry, Jupiter Books, 1975.)

28 29 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) The Contraption After the 1949 painting of the same name formerly in the collection of Lowry’s dealer Andras Kalman Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 750 Image size: 12.5 x 12 inches (32.4 x 30.5 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” lower right Published by the Adam collection in 1975 Courtesy of Mr and Mrs Andras Kalman Printed by Chorley and Pickersgill Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.36

“The artist once saw an invalid carriage in Manchester and was intrigued by the driver’s poetic appearance. He followed the carriage until, stopping in a side street [in the Rd / New Cross area] the driver turned around and shouted abuse at him. Although Lowry kept a look-out for the vehicle he was never to see it again.”

30 31 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) Station Approach After the original 1962 painting of the same name in the collection of the Royal Academy Limited edition print on heavy cotton wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 16 x 20 inches (40.5 x 51 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by the Adam collection, Courtesy of The Royal Academy Printed in Austria by Max Jaffe

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.23

Station Approach shows the approach to Exchange Station in Manchester. Exchange Station was built in 1884 but closed in 1969 and has since been demolished. Lowry chose to depict the city centre rather than the factories and terraced houses of an industrial area, but the somewhat detached view of a frenetic, bustling crowd is a common feature of his work. He portrayed the scene in typically simple black outlines, contrasted against expanses of white and buildings painted in red, grey and ochre. The heavy sky is tinged with grey, partially obscuring the background landmarks, including the tower of Strangeways Prison on the right. Fond of saying “I only paint what I see, you know”, Lowry nevertheless habitually painted in his studio from memory or imagination. He first depicted the approach to Exchange Station in 1960, repeating the same view for a second work in 1962 which he gave to the Royal Academy in London. It is that painting from which the current print is taken. Lowry’s interpretation of the architecture of the station façade varies in each case and he took particular liberties with the statue of Oliver Cromwell that stood at the junction, transforming it into a light-hearted figure directing the traffic.

32 33 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Level Crossing , Burton-on-Trent After the original 1961 painting (Collection: Kirklees Museums and Galleries) Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 16.75 x 22.5 inches (41 x 57cm) Published by Henry Donn in 1973 Courtesy of Salford Museum and Art Gallery Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild

Illustrated: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.26

Lowry made several paintings and drawings of this subject after visiting Burton-on-Trent and seeing the level crossing the including in the earlier painting Level Crossing 1946 (collection: The Lowry, Saldord)

34 35 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) Sailing Boats After the original painting Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 11.5 x 13.5 inches (29 x 34 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right Published in 1972 by Venture Prints, Bristol Courtesy of G.C.Shephard Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.32

36 37 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) Ferry Boats After the original oil painting of the same name painted in 1960 (collection: Bristol City Art Gallery) Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 500 Image size: 12 x 16 inches (30.5 x 40.6 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” lower right Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by Venture prints in 1972

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p. 21.

Lowry loved the sea; it was a constant presence in his life and work. As a child Lowry spent family holidays at Rhyl, Lytham St Anne’s and the Fydle Coast; he recalled drawing ships from the age of eight. In his later years he holidayed in the North East a lot staying at the Seaburn hotel in Sunderland. Early pastels and paintings from the 1920s and 1930s are contemplative scenes of yachts on calm waters; Sailing Boats from this period (painted in 1930) was the only painting (as far as we know) ever to receive praise from his mother. Later he would paint very bleak, empty paintings of the sea which are among his most celebrated works. As Lowry recalled: “When I left my house in Pendlebury a friend told me to live in Mottram. It’s sheer madness and inconveniently small… I never take a holiday and I’d like to live by the sea.” Liz O’Donnell, née Fitton, unpublished student dissertation (1961) p.47, quoted in Michael Howard, Lowry: A Visionary Artist, Lowry Press, 200, p.226. Lowry’s interest in the sea was explored in the recent exhibition “Lowry by The sea” at Jerwood Gallery Hastings , 11 June - 1 November 2015.

The original painting from which this print is taken was painted in 1960, a time when Lowry was at the height of his fame. In 1958 The Lowry Gallery opened at Salford Art Gallery; in 1959 Lowry’s second retrospective opened at Manchester Art Gallery and in 1962 he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy.

38 39 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) The Harbour (Maryport) After the original 1957 painting of the same name Signed Limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 16 x 22 inches (40.5 x 56 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by Venture prints in 1972

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.22

Lowry often visited Cumbria, especially Maryport (the subject of the current work) where his close friend and collector Geoffrey Bennet lived. His other good friend and fellow artist, Sheila Fell, lived in Aspatria in Cumbria so the sea and landscape of the area became regular subjects for him on his visits. The working vessels as opposed to leisure craft especially interested him as an extension of his vision of the industrial landscape of the city. The Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired Ships Near Cumberland Coast in 1963. The current work was painted in 1957 when Lowry was 70, the year he received the letter from a young art student, Carol Lowry, which would change her life forever and provide him with one of his most important muses. He initially didn’t reply to Carol’s letter but months later, feeling lonely, he read it again and on impulse jumped on a bus, turning up unannounced on her doorstep in Heywood, Lancashire. When he died in 1976 having spent the last 20 years tutoring her and developing a friendship so strong he was referred to as “Uncle Lowry”, Carol Ann inherited the entirety of Lowry’s estate.

40 41 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) The Beach After the original painting, Deal Sands, painted in 1947 formerly in the collection of Mrs T.S. Eliot Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 10.25 x 19.75 inches (26 x 51 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by Venture Prints in 1973

Literature: This print was issued in 1973 with another titled “Deal” a print after an original work on paper of the same name also in the collection of the late Mrs T.S. Eliot . See Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.26

“The Beach” shows the harbour at Deal in Kent, and is related to a preliminary drawing dated 1912 which was published as a pair to this print with the title, “Deal”. Lowry returned to that early drawing thirty-five years later as reference for the related painting, Deal Sands 1947 from which this print is taken. Both were acquired by the late Mrs T.S. Eliot, wife of the famous poet and playwright, who amassed one of the finest collections of British art. The Beach is part of Lowry’s body of work which draws inspiration from the sea and the seaside. From an early age Lowry was fascinated by the sea. In his youth, holidays were spent at Lytham St Anne’s on the Fylde coast at Easter, and at Rhyl, on the north-west coast, during the Summer. In later life he commented, ‘It’s the Battle of Life - the turbulence of the sea - and life’s pretty turbulent, isn’t it? I am very fond of the sea, of course, I have been fond of the sea all my life: how wonderful it is, yet how terrible it is’ (quoted in J. Spalding, exhibition catalogue, Lowry, Middlesbrough, Cleveland Art Gallery, 1987, p. 61). Lowry drew seascapes as early as 1902 and continued to explore this theme throughout his career. The resulting pictures vary greatly from brightly coloured delicate sailing boats bobbing on calm waters, to massive industrial ships and tankers with broad bows, beaches teaming with the residents of industrial towns at the seaside for their holiday, as well as complete empty expanses of sea and sky.

42 43 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) Street Scene Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 10 x 8 inches (25.5 x 20 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” lower right Published by the Adam Collection Printed by Chorley and Pickersgill, Ltd. Leeds Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.39

44 45 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) The Family After a 1965 painting of the same name Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 10.5 x 8.5 inches (26.5 x 21.5 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” lower right Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by The Adam Collection Ltd. Printed in Vienna

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.18

46 47 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) Two Brothers After the original 1960 painting of the same name Signed limited edition print from the edition of 850 Image size: 24 x 12 inches (61 x 30.5 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” lower right Stamped by The Fine Art Trade Guild Published 1972 by the Adam Collection Ltd. Printed in Austria by Max Jaffe

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.19 See A. Andrews, The Life of L.S. Lowry, London, 1977, pp. 104-105 (reference to the original)

The Two Brothers was Lowry’s favorite painting. ‘It is absolutely symbolic of life’ he commented to a friend who once owned the original. “There are those two fellows, they could be brother salesmen, they could be calling door to door collecting insurance. There are two figures in the back whom I don’t mean to be policemen but who could easily be taken for such. There’s the church at the back, the two little kids there, and these two poor devils going about their business. Now that’s the industrial scene, too.” A. Andrews, The Life of L.S. Lowry, London, 1977, pp. 104-105.

48 49 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) His Family After the 1955 painting titled Family Group Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 575 Image size: 20.25 x 28 in. (51.5 x 71 cm) Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Printed by Chorley and Pickersgill Ltd.

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.22

“The idea for this painting was based on a family which the artist saw waiting at a bus stop. He was struck by the fact that they all looked highly intelligent. The figure in the centre is the father, who is disappointed in his children.” (Exhibition catalogue, L.S Lowry R.A. Retrospective Exhibition, Arts Council, 1966, p. 16). The figure on the far right hand with a sketchbook in his pocket is the artist himself. With his back to everyone he surreptitiously observes the family group over his right shoulder. Within the group there appear to be not one but two figures identifiable as “Ann”, the enigmatic character that Lowry frequently referred to in various guises but no one actually met. It is very rare to see both the artist and the mythical creation of the artist’s god daughter in the same painting.

50 51 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) A Group of Children After the original painting painted in 1966 Limited edition print on heavy cotton wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 8 x 7 inches (20.3 x 17.8 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” in pencil lower right Bears the Fine Art Trade Guild stamp lower left Published by the Adam Collection c.1970 Printed by Chorley and Pickersgill

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.31

52 53 Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A (1887-1976) The Meeting Point After the 1965 painting of the same name (Collection: Museums Sheffield on loan from a private collection) Signed limited edition print from the edition of 600 Image size: 18.5x 28 in. (46.5 x 71 cm.) Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by the Adam collection in 1973

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.31

By the time Lowry painted the meeting point in 1965 he was at the height of his fame. The year prior the exhibition, “A Tribute to Lowry” took place at Monks Hall Museum, Salford during which artists such as Henry Moore and the esteemed critic Kenneth Clark wrote appreciations of Lowry’s work. In 1966 a major exhibition of Lowry’s work was organized by the Arts Council of Great Britain, touring to Sunderland, Manchester, Bristol and the Tate gallery in London. In 1965, the year The Meeting Point was painted, Lowry received The Freedom of the .

54 55 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) View of a Town Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 Image size: 17 x 21.5 inches (43.2 x 54.6 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” lower right Bears the Fine Art Trade Guild stamp lower left Published by Mainstone publications in 1973 Courtesy of the Usher Gallery, Lincoln Printed in India by Bottons Fine Art

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.27

56 57 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Huddersfield After the original painting of the same commissioned by the Huddersfield Corporation in 1965 (Collection: Kirklees Museums and Galleries - Huddersfield Gallery) Signed limited edition print from the edition of 850 Image size: 17.75 inches x 22.5 inches (45 x 57.1 cm) Stamped by The Fine Art Trade Guild Published by Henry Donn in 1973

Illustrated: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.32

“For a great many years, when I was very active, I used to visit all the industrial towns and stop a couple of nights in each. Huddersfield in particular I’d go back to”

58 59 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Three Men and a Cat After the original 1963 painting Signed limited edition print from the edition of 850 Image size 9.5 x 6.5 in., (24.1 x 16.5 cm) Stamped by The Fine Art Trade Guild Published by the Adam Collection Ltd. in 1971 Printed in Austria by Max Jaffe

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.18

60 61 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Man lying on a wall After the 1957 painting of the same name (Collection: The City of Salford Art Gallery) Signed and numbered limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 500 Image size: 19.75 x 15.75 inches (50.1 x 40 cm) Published by Grove Galleries

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.21

“It was a hot sunny day and I was sitting on a bus when we suddenly passed the man on the wall, just as you see him in my painting.” (L.S. Lowry quoted in L.S . Lowry, Conversation Pieces, Crane Kalman Gallery, 2003, p.129)

The inspiration for Man Lying on a Wall came to Lowry during a bus ride. It was in Haslingden and Lowry remarked to his travelling companion that this would be him when he retired, taking it easy. The painting shows a Chaplin-esque character lying on a wall smoking. In the back ground, a clock tower pierces dense smog along side two industrial chimneys which echo the cigarette the man is smoking. He has leaned his briefcase (to which Lowry added his own initials) and umbrella against the wall.

Lowry loved Charlie Chaplin. As Lowry’s friend, the writer and critic Mervyn Levy states, Lowry “has often spoken to me of his affection for the art of Charlie Chaplin, and there seems little doubt that his own humour has been influenced at points by the film comic. His paintings of the man lying on the wall and father going home display more than a brush of Chaplinesque influence.’ Mervyn Levy The Drawings of L.S. Lowry, 1976, p.19 ‘People...refuse to believe me when I tell them I saw a man dressed just like that, doing just that, from the top of a bus... It was the umbrella propped against the wall which caught my eye and prompted the picture...The chap was well-dressed and obviously enjoying the smoke and his rest. I couldn’t resist doing him as a subject’.

62 63 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) People Standing About After an original watercolour painted c1958 Signed limited edition print from the edition of 500 Image size: 13.75 x 19.5 inches (35 x 49.5 cm) Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by Penrose Fine Arts

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.19

Lowry painted very few watercolours during his career, finding the medium dried too rapidly to allow the reworking that he employed so successfully in his drawings. He seems to have experimented more frequently with them in the late 1950s, mostly portraying his familiar groups of people, as the current work shows

64 65 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Man Holding Child After the original painting Signed limited edition print from the edition of 350 Image size 18 x 28 in., (45.7 x 71 cm) Stamped by The Fine Art Trade Guild Published by the Adam Collection Ltd. Printed by Chorley and Pickersgill, Ltd., Leeds

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.32

66 67 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Industrial Scene Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 After the original oil painting dated 1953 in the collection of the Norwich Castle Museum Image size 13.5 x 9.75 inches (34.7 cm x 24.6 cm) Signed “L.S. Lowry” by the artist in pencil lower right Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild lower left Published by Venture prints in 1974 Courtesy of W.J.Shepherd and the Norwich Museum

Lowry composed the majority of his industrial scenes as composites; images built up from myriad references recalled from long walks (and in later years, drives). The current work shows Lowry’s fascination with the crowd: an argument has turned into a fight and passers by have stopped to gawp. “An important subject throughout much of his life, what fascinated Lowry about the crowd was the “atmosphere of tension when something has happened... Where there’s a quarrel there’s always a crowd… It’s a great draw. A quarrel or a body.”

The original painting from which this print is taken measures 34.7 cm x 24.6 cm (roughly the same size as the limited edition print) and is currently on view at the Norwich Castle Museum who acquired it in 1971. (The same collection also includes Lowry’s Landscape and Farm Buildings 1954.) These works were acquired for the gallery through the assistance of the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society co-founded in 1956 by Lowry’s artist friend and Norfolk local, David Carr, who was the society’s first president and a major collector of Lowry’s work.

68 69 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) The Lonely House Signed limited edition print from the edition of 500 Image size: 10.5x 20 in. (26.5 x 51 cm) Published by Magnus prints Courtesy of Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Printed by Hind, Hoyle and Light Ltd.,Manchester Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.31

Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw was Lord Mayor of Manchester from 1975 to 1976. She met Lowry at a dinner in 1967 and she mentioned she had bought this painting. Lowry responded by drawing a little sketch of the painting on her napkin. The painting was preceded by a drawing titled House on Botany, Clifton 1926 (collection City of Salford Art Gallery).

70 71 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Industrial Town After the original 1944 painting An Industrial Town (collection: Birmingham Museums Trust, presented by the Friends of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1946) Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 500 Image size: 17.25 x 23.5 in., (44 x 60 cm.) Published by Peinture Printed by J.Lin Ltd.

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.35

72 73 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Peel Park (Salford) After the original 1947 painting of the same name Signed limited edition print from the edition of 850 Image size: 15 x 30 inches (38.1 x 76.2 cm) Published by Venture prints in 1973 Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.34

In Lowry’s Peel Park, Salford we see Victoria Arch (erected in 1905) in the distance with Salford Museum and Art Gallery the large building to the right. Lowry painted various views of this park and building on numerous occasions. As a mature student Lowry went intermittently to the Salford School of Art from 1915 which was housed in the same building. He had enrolled , he said, ‘for the benefit of a laugh, and found the atmosphere ‘very restrained’ after the more liberal teaching of Adolphe Valette, the impressionist painter who had moved from France to take up a position at the Manchester School of Art where Lowry took evening classes from 1905 to 1915.

The historian T.G Rosethal wrote of this work, “An almost pure landscape version of Peel Park [displaying] a substantial, unaccountable crowd taking up about forty per cent of the height of the painting and its entire width. It is however a work of considerable beauty and, as in the Necropolis painting of the same period, Lowry has almost as much Joy with the strange range of greens for the grass surface and the healthy trees in leaf as he does with the white.” T.G. Rosenthal, L.S. Lowry – The Art and The Artist, Unicorn Press, 2010, p.242

74 75 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Berwick-on-Tweed Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 650 Image size: 21 x 17 inches (53 x 43 cm) Published by the Medici society in 1973, courtesy of Ronald Lyon Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Printed in Austria

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.28

76 77 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Landscape with farm buildings After the original painting of the same name painted in 1954 (collection Norwich Castle Museum) Signed limited edition print from the edition of 850 Image size: 16 x 19.75 inches (40.6 x 50 cm) Stamped by The Fine Art Trade Guild Published by Venture prints in 1974 Courtesy of Norwich Museum

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.29.

The original painting from which this print is taken is currently on view at the Norwich Castle Museum who acquired it in 1955. (The same collection also includes Lowry’s Industrial Scene 1953.) These two works were acquired for the gallery through the assistance of the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society co-founded in 1956 by Lowry’s artist friend and Norfolk local, David Carr, who was the society’s first president and a major collector of Lowry’s work. Lowry was very interested in how the industrial revolution had altered the face of Victorian Britain. The gates and fences often found in Lowry’s paintings of farms in the countryside around Lytham and Fylde in Lancashire often resurface in the more well known industrial paintings, (for example River Scene 1935 with its rows of paling fences amid the industrial waste land,) which reminds us that many of the small towns which had become fully industrialized in the nineteenth century had often grown from small rural communities.

78 79 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Our Town Signed and numbered limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 850 After the original painting of the same name painted in 1943. (Collection: Arts & Heritage Service collection. ) Image size: 17 x 24.75 inches (43.18 x 62.8 cm) Published by Grove Galleries

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.33

Lowry referred to his industrial landscapes as dreamscapes as they were largely imaginary compositions based on memory and numerous pencil sketches. He described the bleakness of urban life using a very limited range of colours, ivory, black, vermilion (red),Prussian blue, yellow ochre and flake white. Typically in this work Lowry blended stark realism with touches of humour. Two madly capering figures and an enormously fat man stand out against the colourless background and the crowds of hurrying figures. The original painting is on display at Touchstones, Rochdale.

80 81 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Market Scene in a Northern Town After the original 1939 painting depicting Pendlebury Market (Collection: City of Salford Art Gallery presented by the artist in 1942; now in The Lowry Collection, Salford) Limited edition print, signed, not numbered, from the edition of 750 Image size: 18 x 23.75 inches (46 x 60.5 cm) Published by Patrick Seale Prints Ltd, London with their blind stamp

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press 1979, p.29

82 83 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Crime Lake After the painting of the same name from 1942 Image size: 18 x 24 in., (45.7cm x 61 cm) Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 500 Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by the Adam Collection in 1972 Printed in Austria by Max Jaffe

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.19

Crime Lake, was painted by Lowry in 1942 and is in a private collection. In Lowry’s time Crime Lake between and was a popular bank-holiday destination. It resulted from canal works at the time construction in 1794 and was officially known as Crime Bank Reservoir but is far better known by its later name of Crime Lake. The name ‘Crime’ is a local word for meadow rather than anything untoward.

84 85 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Industrial Panorama After the original 1953 painting (collection: Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery acquired from the Lefevre Gallery in 1953) Signed limited edition print from the edition of 300 Image size: 31.25 x 24 inches (79.3 x 60.9 cm) Stamped by The Fine Art Trade Guild Published by the Medici society in 1972 Courtesy of Nottingham Museum Printed in Austria

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Editions of L.S.Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979

The original oil painting, Industrial Panorama 1953 was included in the exhibition Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life at Tate Britain, June – October 2013. The year this work was painted, Lowry was also one of a number of artists commissioned by the Ministry of works to record the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

86 87 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) The Pond After the original oil painting of the same name painted in 1950 (Collection: Tate, London) Signed limited edition print on heavy wove paper from the edition of 850 61 x 72.5 cm Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by Holt: J. H. Mainstone Print Publications, 1974

Illustrated: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press, 1979, p.30

The Pond is an impressive industrial landscape containing many features typical of Lowry’s work; smoking chimneys, terraced houses and on the right, in the middle distance, the Viaduct. The scene is brought to life by his so called ‘matchstick’ people who swarm like ants through the city’s streets and open spaces. ‘This is a composite picture built up from a blank canvas. I hadn’t the slightest idea of what I was going to put in the canvas when I started the picture but it eventually came out as you see it. This is the way I like working best’ (letter from the artist, 21 January 1956).

Lowry considered this to be his finest industrial landscape. ‘My ambition was to put the industrial scene on the map, because nobody had done it,’ he said. The Industrial Revolution is a story we tell about progress; however, Lowry’s work reveals the other side: its tedium and psychological strain. He was not the only one to observe it. ‘I have seen hell and it’s white,’ the author and poet Elizabeth Gaskell said about Cottonopolis – the nickname for Manchester. And Charles Dickens said of the same city, ‘The piston of a steam engine worked monotonously up and down like the head of an elephant in melancholy madness.’

88 89 Laurence Stephen Lowry, RA (1887-1976) Woman with Beard Signed limited edition print on wove paper from the edition of 756 Image size: 23 x 19 inches (58.4 x 48.3 cm) Stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild Published by the Adam Collection in 1975 Printed by Chorley and Pickersgill Copyright in all countries inc. USA

Literature: Henry Donn, The Illustrated Limited Edition Prints of L.S. Lowry, Scolar Press 1979, p.34

Lowry recalled how, on one occasion when travelling by train from Cardiff to Paddington, a bearded woman got into his carriage at Newport. “She had a very nice face, and quite a big beard. Well sir, I just couldn’t let an opportunity pass, so I began almost at once to make a little drawing of her on a piece of paper. She was sitting right opposite me. After a while she asked, rather nervously, what I was doing? I blushed like a Dublin Bay prawn and showed her my sketch- the one from which I later made my painting of her. At first she was greatly troubled, but we talked, and by the time the train had reached Paddington we were the best of friends. We even shook hands on the platform. People say, ‘Oh, but you couldn’t have seen a woman with a beard like that!’But I did you know. They said the same thing about my painting of the bearded lady I saw pushing a pram in Winchester. But I saw her too! Although I’m afraid she wasn’t quite so nice. The moment I saw the good lady I pulled a scrap of paper from my pocket and hurried alongside her scribbling away. Well, my dear sir- her language- Oh! it was quite appalling! Oh, terrible! I wouldn’t dare repeat what she called me!”

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