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Lot Essay
'It fascinates me, dominates my imagination. As you know, my pictures are often based on separate fragments of reality which I fit together to create townscapes. Not all my pictures, by any means, are topographically accurate, many are composite' (quoted in The Studio, see J. Sandling and M. Leber, Lowry's City A Painter and his Locale, Salford, 2000, p. 96).
In Lowry's works from the 1960s his handling of the paintwork became looser, creating a greater sense of movement in his compositions. The Statue, Figures in a Town Square, uses many of the compositional devices that have become part of his repetoire. The narrow vertical edges of buildings frame the sides of the painting that draw the eye of the viewer to the many figures forming centre stage - whilst the statue, though central to the title and picture, forms an adjunct to the monumental flat-fronted factory that looms from behind. The figures enter, cross and leave the scene, each hunched up against the cold and busy in their own thoughts.
The view seems to be readily identifiable as a known town square, but Lowry often created scenes. In this case, the statue might be taken from one of his Peel Park paintings and the factory, which is central to so many of his industrial paintings, can be seen in Coming from the Mill, 1930, and in many other works. In this small-scale painting Lowry has captured the essential elements to create a balanced composition that is quintessentially his own.
In Lowry's works from the 1960s his handling of the paintwork became looser, creating a greater sense of movement in his compositions. The Statue, Figures in a Town Square, uses many of the compositional devices that have become part of his repetoire. The narrow vertical edges of buildings frame the sides of the painting that draw the eye of the viewer to the many figures forming centre stage - whilst the statue, though central to the title and picture, forms an adjunct to the monumental flat-fronted factory that looms from behind. The figures enter, cross and leave the scene, each hunched up against the cold and busy in their own thoughts.
The view seems to be readily identifiable as a known town square, but Lowry often created scenes. In this case, the statue might be taken from one of his Peel Park paintings and the factory, which is central to so many of his industrial paintings, can be seen in Coming from the Mill, 1930, and in many other works. In this small-scale painting Lowry has captured the essential elements to create a balanced composition that is quintessentially his own.