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

'It's the Battle of Life - the turbulence of the sea - and life's pretty turbulent, isn't it? I am very fond of the sea, of course, I have been fond of the sea all my life: how wonderful it is, yet how terrible it is. But I often think ... what if it suddenly changed its mind and didn't turn the tide? And came straight on? If it didn't stop and came on and on and on and on ... That would be the end of it all.' (L.S. Lowry, Tyne Tees Television, quoted in Julian Spalding, Lowry, London, 1987, p.61.)

Lowry's fascination with the emotional and physical power of the sea is captured in his seascapes, uninterrupted by the clutter of a depicted viewer, a vision across the sky and sea offering a subtle evocation of nature's omniscience. His control of tone and colour contrasted with the spontaneity of brush-work, captures the movement and hypnotic pulse of the water.

The small dimensions of this picture serve to heighten the enormity of the subject. Boundaries and surface are ultimately blurred in Lowry's evocation of a force that is potentially infinite.