Steps

The present work is a study for A Footbridge of 1938 - please see lot 9 in the Modern British and Irish Art Evening sale on 22 October 2025. The Steps reveals in pencil the same compositional assurance and quiet tension that animate the finished oil. With a few economical lines, Lowry establishes the rising flight of steps, the solid arc of the bridge and the solitary figure approaching from below. Even in this stripped-back form, the sense of stillness and isolation is unmistakable.

Though likely conceived as a preparatory work, The Steps feels remarkably resolved. The gentle incline of the slopes and the measured rhythm of the composition already contain the emotional charge of the later painting. It captures the moment at which Lowry’s world - half observed, half imagined - hovers between the communal and the private, the industrial and the inward: a push and pull emblematised beautifully by the bridge itself, which seems to represent a path between two worlds.

By the late 1930s, Lowry’s drawings had become less about transcription and more about translation: transforming fragments of reality into symbols of mood and memory. Works such as The Steps strip away the greys and whites of paint to reveal the discipline and sensitivity that underpin his deceptively simple style. Sparse yet complete, this drawing shares the meditative power of A Footbridge, a quiet reflection on solitude within the architecture of modern life. Drawings of this quality and completeness from the 1930s are comparatively rare, offering a revealing insight into Lowry’s process at a pivotal moment in his career.