A Lamp

Details

Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)
A Lamp
signed and dated 'L.S.LOWRY 1961' (lower right) and inscribed 'A LAMP' (on the canvas overlap)
oil on canvas
24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm.)
to be sold with a letter from L.S. Lowry, dated 15th January, 1963.

Provenance

with Stone Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Burford, Oxfordshire.
Bryan Brooke, M.D., F.R.C.S., Moseley, Birmingham, January 1963.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 21 November 1995, lot 249.

Exhibited

Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, Works by L.S. Lowry, September - October 1962, no. 9a.
Manchester, City Art Gallery, on loan.
London, Richard Green, L.S. Lowry A Collector's Choice, May 2004, no. 18.

Special notice

Christie's Interest in Property Consigned for Auction. From time to time, Christie's may offer a lot which it owns in whole or in part. This is such a lot. VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The lamp post is an important part of Lowry's industrial iconography. The present work is a portrait of a lamp post against a single line of railings, almost perfectly symmetrical in its simplicity.

In the letter to Bryan Brooke, Lowry writes, 'Dear Mr Brooke, Dr May Woodall has written from the Art Gallery, Birmingham that you like the picture "The Lamp" now on show there, and would like to buy it. The picture is for sale at the price £300. Yours sincerely, L.S. Lowry'.

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