After the Blitz

Details

Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)
After the Blitz
oil on panel
21 x 17 in. (53.3 x 43.2 cm.)
Painted in 1942.

Provenance

with Alex, Reid and Lefevre, London, as 'Street Scene, House Blizted', where purchased by the present owner's father, and by descent.

Literature

D. Sieja, The Lowry I Knew, London, 1983, p. 88, illustrated.
M. Levy, The Paintings of L.S. Lowry Oils and Watercolours, London, 1975, pl. 103.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy of Arts, L.S. Lowry, September - November 1976, no. 137.
Salford, Salford Art Gallery, L.S. Lowry Centenary Exhibition, October - November 1987, no. 172, as 'Blitz Site'.

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

The present owner's father wrote of this work 'Mr Lowry inspected ruins some weeks after the air raid in 1941 and completed the picture the following year. The street is behind the present Daily Express offices in Gt Ancoats Street, Manchester and near to Oldham Road, the scene of many of his well-known pictures from the period 1936-1951'.

Lowry's treatment of the effects of the war on the domestic front convey a very real sense of loss and desolation caused by the conflict. (For a fuller discussion see M. Howard, Lowry A Visionary Artist, London, Salford, 2000, p. 65).

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