Punch and Judy

Details

Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)
Punch and Judy
signed and dated 'L.S. LOWRY 1943' (lower left)
oil on canvas
16 x 22 in. (40.6 x 55.9 cm.)

Provenance

with Lefevre Gallery, London, April 1951.
The Rev. Geoffrey S. Bennett.
His sale; Christie's, London, 23 March 1995, lot 107, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

M. Collis, The Discovery of L.S. Lowry, London, 1951, p. 21, pl. 13.
A. Kalman in conversation with A. Lambirth, L S Lowry Conversation pieces, London, 2003, p. 83.

Exhibited

London, Lefevre Gallery, Paintings by L.S. Lowry, April 1948, no. 20.
London, Royal Academy, L.S. Lowry 1887-1976, September - November 1976, no. 137.
Carlisle, Tullie House, The Reverend Mr Bennett's Lowrys, January - April 1992, no. 4.

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

Andras Kalman comments on the present work, 'Although this painting is called the Punch and Judy Show, the actual show is very much on the sidelines, not placed centrally in the composition. It's an odd way of putting the theme - to the side, but then perhaps that's why it's called a 'sideshow'!. But Lowry was an odd person in his views, and somehow he had to get in his red houses with their curtained windows, and a church, and if it wasn't a mill belching smoke, an ordinary house had to have a smoking chimney. Since 1940, and what must have been the dreaded release of his mother's death, he had turned a bit more cheerful, and he painted a number of happier pictures in the following decade' (loc. cit).

The subject is Grey Street Recreation Ground on Whit Wednesday.

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