L.S. Lowry

L.S. Lowry (1887-1976) - May Day - 1935

Today is the anniversary of the death of L.S. Lowry. The artist died 48 years ago on 23rd February 1976 aged 88.

L.S. Lowry
by Ida Kar - 1954
National Portrait Gallery

L.S. Lowry's, Going to the Match from 1953, is currently on show at Gallery Oldham.

I thought you might like to see a few close-up images of what is probably Lowry's most famous work.

****The painting is in Oldham until February and there is a talk there tomorrow, Wednesday 17th January at 2pm by Claire Stewart, curator at The Lowry Collection in Salford****

The Lowry

Happy birthday, Mr. Lowry!

L.S. Lowry (1887 - 1976) was born on this day, 1st November, in 1887 - 136 years ago!

From The Northern Art Page.

I drove over to Mottram yesterday to see L.S. Lowry's old house on Stalybridge Road. I'd not been for a few years, so I took some photos this time.

Lowry lived in, The Elms, from 1948 until his death in 1976. I've posted images of the house from Lowry's time, together with photos taken today. Interestingly, the front door is the same! You can also see how much the tree has grown in the front garden. The photo with the van was taken shortly after the artist had died. The artwork was quickly removed for safety reasons.

RIP Mr Riley...

Harold Riley (1934-2023)

Today is the anniversary of the death of L.S. Lowry. The artist died 47 years ago on 23rd February 1976 aged 88.

Lowry in his studio at home, 27 February 1961, Roy Spencer, Daily Herald Archive.

Happy birthday, Mr. Lowry!

L.S. Lowry (1887 - 1976) was born on this day, 1st November, in 1887 - 135 years ago!

Photo by Crispin Eurich in 1962.

You ever walked down these steps?

Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887–1976) - The Haunt - 1969

Collection: The Lowry

It's coming home!!!!!

Going to the Match sold at Christie's this evening for a new Lowry record price of around £7.8 million including commission.

And the good news is that it's been bought by The Lowry Museum in Salford!!

The museum paid £7.8m including fees for Going to the Match, painted in 1953, at an auction on Wednesday evening. The purchase was made possible by a gift from the Law Family charitable foundation, which was set up by Andrew Law and his wife, Zoë.

Yay!!!!!!!

This iconic painting by Lowry is going under the hammer next month...

Selling off the family silver?

I was very surprised to learn today that perhaps L.S. Lowry's most famous work, and arguably the most iconic football related painting of all time, is up for auction next month at Christie's.

L.S. Lowry painted, Going to the Match in 1953, as his entry to the first Football And Fine Arts competition. It was a joint winner and Lowry was given £250 in prize money.

In 1999 the painting achieved a then record Lowry price when sold at Christie's. It was aquired by its current owners, the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), the union for current and former players, who paid £1.9m for it (more than four times the estimate).

Gordon Taylor, then chief executive of the PFA, said it was “quite simply the finest football painting ever.” It would be the PFA’s “prized possession”, he added.

The stadium in the painting is Burnden Park, the former home (now demolished) of Bolton Wanderers, close to Lowry’s home in Pendlebury.

On the 19th October the painting will once again find a new owner(s) when sold by Christie's in their Modern British and Irish sale. The pre-sale estimate is £5-8m and is very likely to smash the current Lowry auction record of 5.6m which was achieved by two separate works by the great man, The Football Match and later, Picadilly Circus.

A spokesperson for the Players Foundation said: “We are very proud that we have been able to make sure the British public have had the opportunity to enjoy such a wonderful piece of footballing memorabilia and art.

“The Players Foundation no longer has any income guaranteed, so we have had to completely reposition the charity. The trustees recognise the current financial crisis means we need all the income we can obtain, and all our assets have to work for us to ensure our ongoing work.

“We want to continue to provide, amongst other things, benevolent grants to those in real financial need, and assist people with dementia. This has led us to the inevitable decision that the Lowry has to be sold in the interests of our beneficiaries.”

I hope it stays in the UK and is still available for the public to see. The risk is that it ends up disappearing overseas...

Perhaps Manchester United and Manchester City could buy it for The National Football Museum!

Spread the word!

https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2022/sep/14/lowrys-going-to-the-match-expected-to-fetch-8m-at-auction

Manchester Evening News Premier League

L.S. Lowry (1887 - 1976) - July, the Seaside - 1943

Collection: Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre

I post this every July! Certainly hot out there today!

L.S. Lowry - The Procession Passing the Queen Victoria Memorial, Coronation - 1953

Collection: Government Art Collection

When L.S. Lowry was appointed an official artist at the Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953, he could not imagine why he was appointed to capture such a grand occasion.
Apparently grumbling quite a bit before he left for London, L.S.Lowry arrived at Buckingham Palace a lot later than his designated time of arrival of six o’clock in the morning. He wore a raincoat all the day, anticipating the predictably changeable British weather. He drew nothing as he sat in the stands; he later confessed to his friend and fellow artist David Carr that he returned the next morning to do a few sketches, though he still had not idea what he would paint: ‘it will sort itself out’ he wrote. The Ministry of Works, it seems, gave little in terms of direction as to what he should produce.

During the procession, Lowry found himself distracted, more by the crowd than by the grand spectacle in front of him. ‘Some excellent incidents took place round about which fascinated me but not, I should imagine, what the Ministry of Works want, I am sorry to say.’

The painting did eventually ‘sort itself out’. By August, two months after the Coronation, he had completed a picture of ‘a straightforward view from [his] seat at the top of the Mall’ and sent it to the Ministry of Works. Lowry was paid £100 for his work . The painting was part of ‘The Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: Paintings and Drawings’, an exhibition held in the New Government Offices, Whitehall Gardens, during November and December 1953. From there, it was sent to Moscow to hang in the British Embassy, and it will be spending the Jubilee year on display in the Consulate General in New York.