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Lot Essay
Lowry first visited Sunderland in 1960 when he and his travelling companions had stopped at the Seaburn Hotel, on the sea front, for lunch. The hotel was to become the base for frequent visits over the next fifteen years. Lowry always took a room on the first floor and had the same table next to a window in the dining room, both with a view out over the North Sea.
Sunderland provided the perfect combination as a destination: as a seaside resort Seaburn lacked the over-development and commercial exploitation of other holiday towns, a fact Lowry great appreciated, whilst as a town it retained the life of a busy industrial port. He remarked that from the Seaburn Hotel, 'you can sense the industry of Sunderland not far away, even though you can't see it' (Sunderland Echo, 23 February 1976) and 'I always wanted to live by the sea, but I wanted somewhere near a city and not a health resort' (A. Hopcraft, 'Lowry revisits his landscapes', Illustrated London News, 9 July 1966, p. 18).
Although by the 1960s much of the industry which had contributed to Sunderland's growth was in decline, there was still a great deal of activity in shipping and shipbuilding around the Wear. One of Lowry's favourite views for his work was the Lambton Drops, where much of the industrial activity still took place. From his viewpoint in Gill Road Lowry could see the Lambton Drops, the electricity works, the gasometer and shipyard at Deptford, and across the bend in the river on the opposite side, Wearmouth Colliery.
It is these landmarks which appear over and over again in the paintings and drawings he executed from this spot. A very similar view, River Wear at Sunderland, 1961, is in the collection of Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery.
Sunderland provided the perfect combination as a destination: as a seaside resort Seaburn lacked the over-development and commercial exploitation of other holiday towns, a fact Lowry great appreciated, whilst as a town it retained the life of a busy industrial port. He remarked that from the Seaburn Hotel, 'you can sense the industry of Sunderland not far away, even though you can't see it' (Sunderland Echo, 23 February 1976) and 'I always wanted to live by the sea, but I wanted somewhere near a city and not a health resort' (A. Hopcraft, 'Lowry revisits his landscapes', Illustrated London News, 9 July 1966, p. 18).
Although by the 1960s much of the industry which had contributed to Sunderland's growth was in decline, there was still a great deal of activity in shipping and shipbuilding around the Wear. One of Lowry's favourite views for his work was the Lambton Drops, where much of the industrial activity still took place. From his viewpoint in Gill Road Lowry could see the Lambton Drops, the electricity works, the gasometer and shipyard at Deptford, and across the bend in the river on the opposite side, Wearmouth Colliery.
It is these landmarks which appear over and over again in the paintings and drawings he executed from this spot. A very similar view, River Wear at Sunderland, 1961, is in the collection of Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery.