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

Ironworks

Details
Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)
Ironworks
signed and dated 'L.S. LOWRY 1941' (lower centre)
oil on board
17¾ x 24 in. (45 x 61 cm.)
Provenance
Picture Loan Collection, Leicestershire County Council, 1952.
The Property of an Institution; Sotheby's, London, 17 July 1968, lot 116, where purchased by Mr & Mrs V. Hill.
Leicestershire County Council, 1975 (on loan).
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

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.

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