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Lot Essay
Merchant Ship perfectly encapsulates Lowry’s enduring fascination with the sea and seafaring vessels. Here, the intensity and majestic power of the sea that held the artist in such awe is humanised by the presence of a single merchant vessel. Rendered in his distinctive black, the ship imbues the composition with an eeriness, a reminder of the artist’s preoccupation with the industrial landscape and the isolation of man.
After his retirement from the Pall Mall Property Company at the age of 65 in 1952, Lowry was able to travel more extensively to other parts of the British Isles. Coastlines and landscapes in the North East, Wales and Scotland became regular subjects in his work, and they allowed him to focus on his fascination for the sea. Lowry had painted yachts and boats from his earliest years, and these were the only subjects of which his mother had approved: her favourite picture, Sailing boats, painted in 1930, hung at his home until his death. At first, the objects of his interest were the lively waters and bobbing yachts that he saw on family holidays at Lytham St Anne's or in North Wales. Later, he began to paint lakeland scenes with long empty horizons which roll out beyond into an unfathomable distance. The lakes appear tranquil but deep and sombre. By the time of his retirement, he returned to the sea again but the boats, and by now heavy shipping, lend his paintings a very different quality, as we see here in Merchant Ship. Lowry's friend and dealer, Andras Kalman, commented that, 'I don't think that anyone since Turner looked at the sea with such an original eye' (see The Loneliness of Lowry, exhibition catalogue, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, 2010, p. 13).
As Michael Howard has commented, 'The heavy ships that populate Lowry's later paintings and drawings move through the implacable waters with no apparent sign of human involvement: there is never a glimpse of figures working the vessels, which seem to move of their own mysterious accord… Lowry perfectly captures the dense black silhouette of the merchant vessel etched against the brilliant crystalline light. Such jewel-like painting are amongst the most moving of his productions… Ships and boats are more than mere carriers of cargo, they are loaded with a host of romantic associations encapsulating our understanding of life and death. Accordingly, at least one commentator has compared Lowry's painted vessels with Charon's barque that in Greek mythology and in Dante's Inferno takes the souls of the dead across the River Styx… Lowry stated on many occasions that he inscribed himself into his pictures, and never more so than in these works. His ships, monuments and rocky outcrops surrounded by the sea are expressions of the pathetic fallacy, whereby inanimate objects are apportioned human attributes, and they feature in different guises in all of Lowry's work… Such works may be powerful or picturesque, disturbing or entertaining in turn. But whether humorous in intent or deadly serious, they are united as expressions of the artist imposing his will upon a recalcitrant nature' (L.S. Lowry, A Visionary Artist, Salford, 2000, pp. 234-236).
After his retirement from the Pall Mall Property Company at the age of 65 in 1952, Lowry was able to travel more extensively to other parts of the British Isles. Coastlines and landscapes in the North East, Wales and Scotland became regular subjects in his work, and they allowed him to focus on his fascination for the sea. Lowry had painted yachts and boats from his earliest years, and these were the only subjects of which his mother had approved: her favourite picture, Sailing boats, painted in 1930, hung at his home until his death. At first, the objects of his interest were the lively waters and bobbing yachts that he saw on family holidays at Lytham St Anne's or in North Wales. Later, he began to paint lakeland scenes with long empty horizons which roll out beyond into an unfathomable distance. The lakes appear tranquil but deep and sombre. By the time of his retirement, he returned to the sea again but the boats, and by now heavy shipping, lend his paintings a very different quality, as we see here in Merchant Ship. Lowry's friend and dealer, Andras Kalman, commented that, 'I don't think that anyone since Turner looked at the sea with such an original eye' (see The Loneliness of Lowry, exhibition catalogue, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, 2010, p. 13).
As Michael Howard has commented, 'The heavy ships that populate Lowry's later paintings and drawings move through the implacable waters with no apparent sign of human involvement: there is never a glimpse of figures working the vessels, which seem to move of their own mysterious accord… Lowry perfectly captures the dense black silhouette of the merchant vessel etched against the brilliant crystalline light. Such jewel-like painting are amongst the most moving of his productions… Ships and boats are more than mere carriers of cargo, they are loaded with a host of romantic associations encapsulating our understanding of life and death. Accordingly, at least one commentator has compared Lowry's painted vessels with Charon's barque that in Greek mythology and in Dante's Inferno takes the souls of the dead across the River Styx… Lowry stated on many occasions that he inscribed himself into his pictures, and never more so than in these works. His ships, monuments and rocky outcrops surrounded by the sea are expressions of the pathetic fallacy, whereby inanimate objects are apportioned human attributes, and they feature in different guises in all of Lowry's work… Such works may be powerful or picturesque, disturbing or entertaining in turn. But whether humorous in intent or deadly serious, they are united as expressions of the artist imposing his will upon a recalcitrant nature' (L.S. Lowry, A Visionary Artist, Salford, 2000, pp. 234-236).