Lot Essay
By the 1930s Lowry had established his own particular style. Encouraged by his teacher Bernard Taylor to make the buildings and figures stand out more he experimented with white backgrounds, creating his now trademark industrial landscapes. He restricted his palette to five colours: flake white and ivory black, with vermillion, Prussian blue and ochre.
Lowry's industrial landscapes were often composite 'dreamscapes' combining the elements which haunted his imagination: the inferno like row of red chimneys belching fierce red smoke, the grimy desolate wasteground and the small workers cottages, dwarfed by the factories. A further technique used to great effect by Lowry is scratching out, the railings in the immediate foreground and close to the cottages are created by gouging out the paint with an implement, perhaps the end of his paintbrush, as if to emphasise their structure.
Lowry's industrial landscapes were often composite 'dreamscapes' combining the elements which haunted his imagination: the inferno like row of red chimneys belching fierce red smoke, the grimy desolate wasteground and the small workers cottages, dwarfed by the factories. A further technique used to great effect by Lowry is scratching out, the railings in the immediate foreground and close to the cottages are created by gouging out the paint with an implement, perhaps the end of his paintbrush, as if to emphasise their structure.