Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)
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Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)

Three Figures (Mother and Sons)

Details
Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)
Three Figures (Mother and Sons)
signed and dated 'L.S. LOWRY 1967' (lower right)
oil on canvas
20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm.)
Provenance
Monty Bloom; Christie's, London, 9 June 2000, lot 51, where purchased by the present owner.
Literature
Exhibition catalogue, L.S. Lowry Centenary Exhibition, Salford, City Art Gallery, 1987, no. 313, fig. 22.
Exhibition catalogue, Lowry, Middlesbrough, Cleveland Art Gallery, 1987, pp. 68, 95, pl. 57.
Exhibited
Southport, Atkinson Art Gallery, The Bloom Collection, 1967, no catalogue produced.
London, Royal Academy, L.S. Lowry 1887-1976, September - November 1976, no. 311.
Salford, City Art Gallery, L.S. Lowry Centenary Exhibition, October - November 1987, no. 313.
Middlesbrough, Arts Council, Cleveland Art Gallery, Lowry, December 1987 - January 1988, no. 69: this exhibition travelled to Coventry, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, January - February 1988; Stoke-on-Trent, Art Gallery, March - April 1988; Exeter, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, April - May 1988; and London, Barbican Art Gallery, August - October 1988.
Manchester, City Art Gallery, on loan.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

In a series of conversations during the 1960s with Edwin Mullins, entitled The Loneliness of L.S. Lowry, the artist discussed his preoccupation with figure paintings during this decade, 'During the past ten years Lowry has tended to abandon his panoramic mill scenes and massed figure-subjects in favour of close-up studies of strange, individual figures, described with a distinctly grotesque humour. Lowry generally has a story about each of them.

'It just happened that way. Everything in my life has just happened, There's a grotesque streak in me and I can't help it'. My characters? They are all people you might see in a park. They are real people, sad people; something's gone wrong in their lives. I'm attracted to sadness, and there are some very sad things you see. There is something about these people that is remarkable, you know. They have a look in their eye. You wonder what they are really looking at. There is a mystery about them. I feel I am compelled to try and draw them. I wonder all the time: what is their life?' (see exhibition catalogue, L.S. Lowry, Salford Art Gallery, 1987, p. 81).

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