The Broker's Shop

Details

Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)
The Broker's Shop
signed and dated 'L.S. LOWRY. 1931.' (lower left)
oil on panel
11¾ x 20 (29.9 x50.8 cm.)

Provenance

with Alex Reid and Lefevre, London, February 1939.
A.J. McNeill Reid, London.
Anon. sale; Christie's, London, 18 November 1977, lot 129.

Exhibited

Salford, Festival of Britain, Salford City Art Gallery, A Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of L.S. Lowry, July-August 1951, no. 38.
Wakefield, City Art Gallery, L.S. Lowry and Josef Herman, 1955, no. 4.
Manchester, City Art Gallery, L.S. Lowry, June-July 1959, no. 22.
Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, L.S. Lowry Paintings and Drawings, September-October 1962, no. 15.
Glasgow, Art Gallery, Pictures to Live With, 1964, no. 15.
Edinburgh, The Scottish Arts Council, Modern Art from Scottish Houses, 1969, no. 34.
London, Lefevre Gallery, L.S. Lowry, May-July 1976, no. 2.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

In retrospect Lowry was to say 'The years from 1924 to 1932 were the happiest of my life' (L.S. Lowry to Professor Hugh B. Maitland, on tape, 1970). The artist was achieving a modest measure of success which gave him hope and faith in his vision. Observing his work at that time Jessica W. Stevens (The Studio, vol. 95, no. 48, January 1928) wrote: 'It is penetrative, incisive, stinging and may even be sarcastic. There is something almost Olympian in the observation ... where fly-like congregations of busy humans are seen from above, little legs half bent in the effort to get on; little heads full of little personal concerns'. The present work, dated 1931, was painted in the year before Lowry's father died, an event that would herald a complete change in Lowry's life.

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