Standing Figure

Mervyn Levy (The Drawings of L.S. Lowry Public and Private, London, 1976, under pl. 203) comments on the artist's depiction of a single standing figure in the drawings of the 1950s and 60s, 'He concentrated upon types, or upon simple situations such as A Man taken Ill (private collection). In most of these drawings the figure is totally isolated in an expanse of white paper - a method which serves to intensify the view, and to concentrate the attention of the spectator solely upon the subject, who is thus exposed as though studied through a telescope or even under a microscope. In this way the artist offers a voyeur's view of his subjects, who are themselves completely unaware that they are being scrutinized: a cruel and telling ploy'.