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Lot Essay
Painted in 1956, Street with tower depicts the road leading up to St Michael and All Angels, Angel Meadow, Manchester. Lowry was fascinated by this road, which splits in two, one carrying on up the hill and the other going down, and painted it many times. In the different works that he painted of this subject he changed elements, including or omitting motifs to suit the current composition.
The present work does not include the church at all and instead Lowry has painted his distinctive tall gateposts in the background (see lot 140), some smoking industrial chimneys beyond and the back view of his contraption disappearing beyond the gateposts. A number of figures are depicted in this street scene and Lowry has included another characteristic motif of a central solitary figure with his back to the viewer, surveying the scene in front of him. His isolation from the people around him is apparent and Lowry has also included a trademark lamp-post on the left hand side of the painting. Andras Kalman recalls, 'When, in later life, Lowry was asked his advice by younger artists, he was fond of saying: 'No need to go to London to become a famous painter. You won't find better lamp-posts there'' (see A. Kalman, L S Lowry: Conversation Pieces, London, 2003, p. 122).
The present work does not include the church at all and instead Lowry has painted his distinctive tall gateposts in the background (see lot 140), some smoking industrial chimneys beyond and the back view of his contraption disappearing beyond the gateposts. A number of figures are depicted in this street scene and Lowry has included another characteristic motif of a central solitary figure with his back to the viewer, surveying the scene in front of him. His isolation from the people around him is apparent and Lowry has also included a trademark lamp-post on the left hand side of the painting. Andras Kalman recalls, 'When, in later life, Lowry was asked his advice by younger artists, he was fond of saying: 'No need to go to London to become a famous painter. You won't find better lamp-posts there'' (see A. Kalman, L S Lowry: Conversation Pieces, London, 2003, p. 122).