Lowry’s Going To Work returns home to Manchester for display at IWM North

Lowry’s iconic painting, Going To Work is returning home to Manchester. The artwork, painted by Manchester native Laurence Stephen Lowry, will be going on display for the first time at IWM North from 29 July.

Created in 1943, at the height of the Second World War, the painting was commissioned to depict industrial scenes in Manchester. Lowry painted factory workers on their way to the Mather & Platt engineering works in Newton Heath, Manchester. Barrage balloons, used to defend against aircraft attacks, can be seen in the morning sky overhead as workers walk to the factory. The white sky and ground, originally thought to be snow, is in fact an evocation of industrial haze. Mather & Platt was a successful business established in the 19th century and was well known for producing battery pumps used in all types of industry. The factory was taken over by the government during the Second World War and produced munitions and pumps for the war effort, and manufactured equipment that was sent to the Soviet Union for use on the Eastern Front.

The painting was commissioned and collected by the War Artists Advisory Committee. The committee was set up by Sir Kenneth Clark, director of the National Gallery, and collected around 6,000 art works through commissions, purchases and donations throughout the war. At the end of the war, IWM helped allocate different works to galleries and institutions around the world. IWM itself received around 3,000 works of art, including Going To Work. Lowry was paid 25 guineas for the commission and completed the work within three months. The painting would have been displayed many times by the committee in exhibitions throughout the country and abroad to promote Britain’s Second World War effort.

Ahead of its display, the painting has undergone some conservation work. The process included the removal of varnish from the painting, which was added sometime after Lowry created the artwork as Lowry did not varnish his paintings. The varnish had affected the colour balancing of the artwork, adding a yellow hint to the painting. Removing the varnish has revealed the work that Lowry originally intended.

IWM Curator, Claire Brenard, said: “Lowry’s Going to Work is part of a broader collection of artworks at IWM depicting wartime industry. British manufacturing was a very important subject for artists in both world wars, representing the huge effort of men and women who worked in factories across the country. Lowry, whose reputation was growing at the start of the Second World War, was seen by the War Artists Advisory Committee as the ideal artist to paint the subject of war production in his native Manchester. We are extremely fortunate that this work came into IWM’s collection at the end of the war and it is incredibly exciting that it will finally be going on permanent display in its home city.”

L.S. Lowry was born in 1887, Stretford, Greater Manchester. He lived in Manchester for all of his life, and is best known for his paintings of crowds of people in industrial settings, including many in the Salford area. Lowry was a solitary character and somewhat of an outsider to the art world, hiding the fact that he worked fulltime as a rent collector for a property company. He would return from a full day’s work, observing the city and paint from memory at home, often working into the night. Lowry died in 1976 at the age of 88.

Alongside Going To Work, several other works will be going on display for the first time at IWM North as part of a major rehang of artwork at the museum. Works include Building Flying-Boats by Flora Lion, who painted factory scenes in the North of England the First World War, and The 'L' Press. Forging the Jacket of an 18-inch Gun by Anna Airy, one of the first women war artists, employed by the newly founded Imperial War Museum in 1918.

Going To Work by L.S Lowry will go on display in the Main Exhibition Space at IWM North from 30 July.

Ends

For further press information, images and interview requests please contact: Rhodri Cole, Communications Officer (Corporate), [email protected] / 020 7416 5420

Notes to editors

IWM North The multi award winning IWM North brings Imperial War Museums’ national collection to northern audiences. Designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind to represent a globe shattered by conflict, the iconic building, innovative and dynamic exhibitions, use of digital media through hourly Big Picture Shows and public events explore how war shapes lives and inspires and encourages debate.

Open Daily: 10am – 5pm. Last entry 30 minutes before closing. (Closed 24 – 26 December). Free Admission.

IWM North, The Quays, Trafford Wharf Road, Manchester M17 1TZ (close to MediaCityUK Metrolink and Junction 9 of the M60) T: 020 7416 5000 iwm.org.uk / @IWMNorth / www.facebook.com/iwm.north

IWM IWM (Imperial War Museums) tells the story of people who have lived, fought and died in conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth since the First World War.

Our unique collections, made up of the everyday and the exceptional, reveal stories of people, places, ideas and events. Using these, we tell vivid personal stories and create powerful physical experiences across our five museums that reflect the realities of war as both a destructive and creative force. We challenge people to look at conflict from different perspectives, enriching their understanding of the causes, course and consequences of war and its impact on people’s lives.

IWM’s five branches which attract over 2.5 million visitors each year are IWM London, IWM’s flagship branch that recently transformed with new, permanent and free First World War Galleries alongside new displays across the iconic Atrium to mark the Centenary of the First World War; IWM North, housed in an iconic award- winning building designed by Daniel Libeskind; IWM Duxford, a world renowned aviation museum and Britain's best preserved wartime airfield; Churchill War Rooms, housed in Churchill’s secret headquarters below Whitehall; and the Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast.