L. S. Lowry

{{Infobox artist

| name = L. S. Lowry

| honorific_suffix = RBA RA

| image = L.S. Lowry.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Lowry at work

| birth_name = Laurence Stephen Lowry

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1887|11|1|df=y}}

| birth_place = Stretford, Lancashire, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1976|2|23|1887|11|1|df=y}}

| death_place = Glossop, Derbyshire, England

| field = Painting

| training = Manchester Municipal College
Salford Technical College

| movement =

| works = {{Plainlist|

Coming from the Mill (1930)
Going to Work (1943)
Going to the Match (1953)
Industrial Landscape (1955)
Portrait of Ann (1957)
Man Lying on a Wall (1957)

}}

| awards = {{Plainlist|

}}

Laurence Stephen Lowry {{Post-nominals|list=RBA RA}} ({{IPAc-en|'|l|aʊ|r|i}} {{respell|LAO|ree}}; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Greater Manchester (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity.{{Cite web|title=L.S. Lowry {{!}} British painter|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/L-S-Lowry|access-date=11 December 2020|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}

Lowry painted scenes of life in the industrial districts of North West England in the mid-20th century. He developed a distinctive style of painting and is best known for his urban landscapes peopled with human figures, often referred to as "matchstick men". He painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding portraits and the unpublished "marionette" works, which were only found after his death. He was fascinated by the sea, and painted pure seascapes, depicting only sea and sky, from the early 1940s.{{Cite web |title=LS Lowry rare Seaburn seascape sells for more than £1m |author= |website=BBC News |date=15 October 2022 |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63270355}}

His use of stylised figures which cast no shadows, and lack of weather effects in many of his landscapes led critics to label him a naïve{{Cite news

| title = L. S. Lowry: The original grime artist

| last = Jones | first = Jonathan

| author-link = Jonathan Jones (journalist)

| newspaper = The Guardian | location = London

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/apr/18/ls-lowry-tate

| date = 18 April 2011 | access-date = 21 October 2011

}} "Sunday painter".L. S. Lowry Retrospective Exhibition (Manchester: Manchester City Art Gallery, 1959)L S Lowry RA: Retrospective Exhibition, (London: Arts Council, 1966)Mervyn Levy, L. S. Lowry (London: Royal Academy of Art, 1976)M. Leber and J. Sandling (eds.), L. S. Lowry Centenary Exhibition (Salford: Salford Museum & Art Gallery, 1987)

Lowry holds the record for rejecting British honours—five, including a knighthood (1968). A collection of his work is on display in The Lowry, a purpose-built art gallery on Salford Quays. On 26 June 2013, a major retrospective opened at the Tate Britain in London, his first at the gallery; in 2014 his first solo exhibition outside the UK was held in Nanjing, China.

Early life

File:117 Station Road, Pendlebury.jpg, Lancashire]]

Lowry was born on 1 November 1887 at 8 Barrett Street, Stretford, which was then in Lancashire.{{Cite web

| title = Stretford Area

| last = Anon

| work = Blue Plaques In Trafford

| publisher = Trafford Council

| url = http://www.trafford.gov.uk/residents/leisure-and-lifestyle/libraries/blue-plaques-in-stretford.aspx

| access-date = 24 February 2015

| archive-date = 24 February 2015

| archive-url = https://archive.today/20150224194306/http://www.trafford.gov.uk/residents/leisure-and-lifestyle/libraries/blue-plaques-in-stretford.aspx

| url-status = dead

}} It was a difficult birth, and his mother Elizabeth, who hoped for a girl, was uncomfortable even looking at him at first. Later she expressed envy of her sister Mary, who had "three splendid daughters" instead of one "clumsy boy". Lowry's grandfather Frederick Lowry had emigrated as a boy from Ulster in 1826 and finally settled in Manchester; he built up a career as an estate agent.{{cite book |last=Andrews |first=Allen |title=The Life of L. S. Lowry, 1887-1976 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRs3AQAAIAAJ |publisher=Jupiter Books |year=1977 |isbn=9780904041606 |page=29}} His father Robert worked as a clerk for the Jacob Earnshaw and Son Property Company and was a withdrawn and introverted man. Lowry once described him as a "cold fish [...] a queer chap in many ways [...] nothing moved him. Nothing upset him. Nothing pleased him. It was as if he had got a life to get through and he got through it".{{Cite web |title=L. S. Lowry Paintings, Bio, Ideas |url= https://www.theartstory.org/artist/lowry-ls/ |website=The Art Story |access-date=10 April 2025 }}

After Lowry's birth, his mother's health was too poor for her to continue teaching. She is reported to have been a religious woman who was talented and respected, with aspirations of becoming a concert pianist.{{Cite web|last=Backholer|first=Paul|date=1 December 2021|title=L.S. Lowry, Faith and Art|url=https://byfaith.org/2021/12/01/l-s-lowry-faith-and-art/|access-date=13 December 2021|website=ByFaith}} She was also an irritable, nervous woman brought up to expect high standards by her stern father. Like him, she was controlling and intolerant of failure. She used illness as a means of securing the attention and obedience of her mild and affectionate husband and she dominated her son in the same way. Lowry maintained that he had an unhappy childhood, growing up in a repressive family atmosphere. Although his mother demonstrated no appreciation of her son's gifts as an artist, a number of books Lowry received as Christmas presents from his parents are inscribed to "Our dearest Laurie". At school he made few friends and showed no academic aptitude. His father was affectionate towards him but was, by all accounts, a quiet man who was at his most comfortable fading into the background as an unobtrusive presence.Julian Spalding, Lowry, (Oxford: Phaidon, New York: Dutton, 1979)Paul Vallely, 'Will I be a great artist?', The Independent, 23 February 2006

Much of Lowry's early years were spent in the leafy Manchester suburb of Victoria Park, Rusholme, but in 1909, when he was 22, due to financial pressures, the family moved to 117 Station Road in the industrial town of Pendlebury.{{Cite news

|title='Golden opportunity' to save important piece of city's heritage is missed as Lowry's former house is sold off

|author=Neal Keeling

|newspaper=Manchester Evening News

|url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/golden-opportunity-save-important-piece-7989264

|date=24 October 2014

|access-date=14 November 2015

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117022533/http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/golden-opportunity-save-important-piece-7989264

|archive-date=17 November 2015

}} Here the landscape comprised textile mills and factory chimneys rather than trees. Lowry later recalled: "At first I detested it, and then, after years I got pretty interested in it, then obsessed by it ... One day I missed a train from Pendlebury – [a place] I had ignored for seven years – and as I left the station I saw the Acme Spinning Company's mill ... The huge black framework of rows of yellow-lit windows standing up against the sad, damp charged afternoon sky. The mill was turning out ... I watched this scene — which I'd looked at many times without seeing — with rapture ..."{{Cite web

| title = LS Lowry – His Life and Career

| last = Anon

| website = thelowry.com

| publisher = The Lowry

| url = http://www.thelowry.com/ls-lowry/his-life-and-work

| access-date = 28 April 2012

| quote= I just painted what I saw or the way I saw it

| url-status = dead

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120502031429/http://www.thelowry.com/ls-lowry/his-life-and-work/

| archive-date = 2 May 2012

}}

Education

File:Peel Building University of Salford.jpg. It overlooks Peel Park, the subject of a number of his paintings. His pencil drawing "A View from the window of the Royal Technical College, Salford" (1924) was drawn from the balconied window on the upper floor.{{Cite web

| title = A view from the window of the Royal Technical College, Salford

| last = Anon

| publisher = Google Cultural Institute

| url = https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/a-view-from-the-window-of-the-royal-technical-college-salford/zQGz6uOQAK0lBQ?hl=en

| access-date = 1 October 2015

}} ]]

After leaving school, Lowry began a career working for the Pall Mall Company, later collecting rents, he would spend some time in his lunch hour at Buile Hill Park{{Cite web

| title = Buile Hill Park

| publisher = Salford Borough Council

| url = https://www.salford.gov.uk/builehill.htm

| access-date = 16 February 2012

}} and in the evenings took private art lessons in antique and freehand drawing. In 1905, he secured a place at the Manchester School of Art, where he studied under the French Impressionist, Pierre Adolphe Valette.{{Cite web

| title = Lowry and Valette

| publisher = Manchestergalleries.org

| url = http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/permanent-galleries/modern-galleries/lowry-and-valette/

| access-date = 1 November 2012

}} Lowry was full of praise for Valette as a teacher, remarking "I cannot over-estimate the effect on me of the coming into this drab city of Adolphe Valette, full of French impressionists, aware of everything that was going on in Paris".{{Cite news

| title = Exhibition for 'Monet of Manchester' who inspired Lowry

| last = Brown | first = Mark

| newspaper = The Guardian | location = London

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/oct/14/exhibition-for-artist-who-inspired-lowry

| date = 14 October 2011 | access-date = 21 October 2011

}} In 1915 he moved on to the Royal Technical Institute, Salford (later to become the Royal Technical College, Salford and now the University of Salford) where his studies continued until 1925. There he developed an interest in industrial landscapes and began to establish his own style.McLean (1978)

Lowry's oil paintings were originally impressionistic and dark in tone but D. B. Taylor of the Manchester Guardian took an interest in his work and encouraged him to move away from the sombre palette he was using. Taking this advice on board, Lowry began to use a white background to lighten the pictures.{{Cite news

| title = Lowry included figures simply because they were part of the observed scene. To him they became items of composition.

| last = anon

| newspaper = The Guardian

| department = Arts Guardian

| page = 10

| date = 24 February 1976

| quote = Lowry's ancestry on his father's side derived from Northern Ireland.

}} He developed a distinctive style of painting and is best known for his urban landscapes peopled with human figures, often referred to as "matchstick men". According to art critic Simon Hucker, "he [Lowry] is much more sophisticated than that… This idea that he's a naive painter who can't paint any better … god, he can paint, he's a proper impressionist. These people are not caricatures – he can give you the impression of a man with a couple of strokes at the brush. In these little tiny figures you get a lot of story, and that’s his genius."{{Cite news |title=LS Lowry painting sold to Guardian literary editor for £10 could fetch £1m |last=Brooks |first=Libby |url= https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/apr/08/ls-lowry-painting-going-to-the-mill-guardian-literary-editor-auction |date=8 April 2025 |work=The Guardian |access-date=10 April 2025}} He also painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding portraits and the unpublished "marionette" works, which were only found after his death.{{Cite news

| title = LS Lowry: there's more to him than matchstick men

| newspaper = The Telegraph | department = Art Features

| url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/10111183/LS-Lowry-theres-more-to-him-than-matchstick-men.html

| access-date = 27 June 2015

}}

Death of his parents

His father died in 1932, leaving debts. His mother, subject to neurosis and depression, became bedridden and dependent on her son for care. Lowry painted after his mother had fallen asleep, between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Many paintings produced during this period were damning self-portraits (often referred to as the "Horrible Heads" series), which demonstrate the influence of expressionism and may have been inspired by an exhibition of Vincent van Gogh's work at Manchester Art Gallery in 1931. He expressed regret that he received little recognition as an artist until his mother died (1939) and that she was not able to enjoy his success. From the mid-1930s until at least 1939, Lowry took annual holidays at Berwick-upon-Tweed. After the outbreak of the Second World War Lowry served as a volunteer fire watcher and became an official war artist in 1943. In 1953, he was appointed Official Artist at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.{{cite news|last1=Coyle|first1=Simon|title=Laurence Stephen Lowry: Famous artist|url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/nostalgia/laurence-stephen-lowry-famous-artist-7388884|access-date=21 February 2018|work=Manchester Evening News|publisher=M.E.N. media|date=8 September 2014}} After his mother's death in October 1939, he became depressed and neglected the upkeep of his house to such a degree that the landlord repossessed it in 1948. He was not short of money and bought "The Elms" in Mottram in Longdendale then in Cheshire. The area was much more rural but Lowry professed to dislike both the house and the area:

{{blockquote|They're nice folk, I've nothing against them, it's the place never could take to it. I can't explain it. I've often wondered...It does nothing for me. I know there's plenty to paint here but I haven't the slightest desire to work locally. I've done one painting of the local agricultural show. Was commissioned to paint the parish church but had to give it up, I couldn't do it.}}

Although he considered the house ugly and uncomfortable, it was spacious enough both to set up his studio in the dining room and to accommodate the collection of china and clocks that he had inherited from his mother; he stayed there until his death almost 30 years later.{{cite news|title=Mottram home artist LS Lowry 'hated' given listed status|url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mottram-home-artist-ls-lowry-698196|access-date=21 February 2018|work=Manchester Evening News|publisher=M.E.N Media|date=3 December 2012}}{{Cite web

|title=L.S. Lowry

|work=Britain Unlimited

|url=http://www.britainunlimited.com/Biogs/Lowry.htm

|access-date=8 November 2006

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061112174501/http://www.britainunlimited.com/Biogs/Lowry.htm

|archive-date=12 November 2006

}}

Personal life

In later years, Lowry spent holidays at the Seaburn Hotel in Sunderland, painting scenes of the beach and nearby ports and coal mines. When he had no sketchbook, Lowry drew scenes in pencil or charcoal on the back of envelopes, paper napkins and cloakroom tickets and presented them to young people sitting with their families. Such serendipitous pieces are now worth thousands of pounds.{{cite web|last1=Halley|first1=John|title=Laurence Stephen Lowry (1st November 1887 to 23rd February 1976.)|url=http://www.johnhalley.uk/BP%20-%20Lowry.htm|access-date=21 February 2018}}

He was a secretive and mischievous man who enjoyed stories irrespective of their truth.For example, that when he was treated to lunch at the Ritz by the art dealer Andras Kalman, he asked if they did Egg and Chips, The Daily Telegraph, Thursday 9 August 2007, Issue Number 47,332 p. 27. His friends observed that his anecdotes were more notable for humour than accuracy and in many cases he set out deliberately to deceive. His stories about the fictional Ann were inconsistent and he invented other people as frameworks on which to hang his tales. The collection of clocks in his living room were all set at different times: to some people, he said that this was because he did not want to know the real time; to others, he claimed that it was to save him from being deafened by their simultaneous chimes. The owner of an art gallery in Manchester who visited him at his home, The Elms, noted that while his armchair was sagging and the carpet frayed, Lowry was surrounded by items such as his beloved Rossetti drawing, Proserpine, as well as a Lucian Freud drawing located between two Tompion clocks.{{Cite book|title=L. S. Lowry, R.A.: A Selection of Masterpieces|last=Lowry|first=L.S.|publisher=Crane Kalman Gallery|year=1994|location=London|oclc=1005895021}}

Lowry had many long-lasting friendships, including the Salford artist Harold Riley and painter Pat Gerrard Cooke (1935 – 2000). He made new friends throughout his adult life. He bought works from young artists he admired, such as James Lawrence Isherwood, whose Woman with Black Cat hung on his studio wall.{{Cite web

| title = Lawrence Isherwood

| publisher = Isherwoodart.co.uk

| url = http://www.isherwoodart.co.uk

| access-date = 11 March 2014

}} He was friends with some of these artists; he befriended the 23-year-old Cumberland artist Sheila Fell in November 1955, describing her as "the finest landscape artist of the mid-20th century".{{cite web | last=Herbert | first=Ian | title=LS Lowry's brilliant but tragic protégé gets her day in the sun | website=The Independent | date=29 March 2005 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/ls-lowry-s-brilliant-but-tragic-protacgac-gets-her-day-in-the-sun-8358.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101004040736/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/ls-lowrys-brilliant-but-tragic-protatildecopygatildecopy-gets-her-day-in-the-sun-530337.html |archive-date=4 October 2010}} He supported Fell's career by buying several pictures that he gave to museums. Fell later described him as "A great humanist. To be a humanist, one has first to love human beings, and to be a great humanist, one has to be slightly detached from them". As he never married, this affected his influence but he did have several female friends. At the age of 88 he said that he had "never had a woman".{{Cite news

| title = Hidden LS Lowry drawings reveal artist's erotic stirrings

| last = Nikkhah | first = Roya

| newspaper = The Telegraph | location = London

| url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8068169/Hidden-LS-Lowry-drawings-reveal-artists-erotic-stirrings.html

| date = 16 October 2010

}} Although seen as a mostly solitary and private person, Lowry enjoyed attending football matches and was an ardent supporter of Manchester City F.C.{{Cite web

|title=Dream exhibition for City fan Ben

|work=citylife.co.uk

|url=http://www.citylife.co.uk/arts/news/12433_dream_exhibition_for_city_fan_ben

|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120724203605/http://www.citylife.co.uk/arts/news/12433_dream_exhibition_for_city_fan_ben

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=24 July 2012

|date=10 February 2009

}}{{cite news|title=Lowry football match painting up for auction|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12324389|work=BBC News|date=1 February 2001}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.lowry.co.uk/lowry-biography.html|title=Lowry Biography - L.S. Lowry RBA RA|website=www.lowry.co.uk}}{{cite news|title=Christies|url=https://www.christies.com/features/10-things-to-know-about-LS-Lowry-8657-1.aspx}}

Retirement

Lowry retired from the Pall Mall Property Company in 1952 on his 65th birthday.McLean, 1978 In 1957 an unrelated 13-year-old schoolgirl called Carol Ann Lowry wrote to him at her mother's urging to ask his advice on becoming an artist. He visited her home in Heywood and befriended the family. His friendship with Carol Ann Lowry lasted for the rest of his life.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jun/09/lowry-peoples-artist-tate-britain-feature|title=LS Lowry: the people's artist comes in from the cold|first=Rachel|last=Cooke|date=8 June 2013|access-date=21 November 2017|via=www.theguardian.com|newspaper=The Guardian}}{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/artsales/9658242/Art-Sales-A-glimpse-of-lesser-known-Lowrys.html|title=Art Sales: A glimpse of lesser-known Lowrys|first=Colin|last=Gleadell|date=6 November 2012|access-date=21 November 2017|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}} BBC Radio 4 broadcast in 2001 a dramatisation by Glyn Hughes of Lowry's relationship with Carol Ann.{{Cite web|date=May 2001|title=Mr. Lowry's Loves|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007d5m|website=BBC Radio 4}}

In the 1960s Lowry shared exhibitions in Salford with Warrington-born artist Reginald Waywell D.F.A.{{Cite web

| title = BBC - Your Paintings - Reginald Waywell

| publisher = Art UK

| url = https://artuk.org/discover/artists/waywell-reginald-b-1924

}}

Lowry joked about retiring from the art world, citing his lack of interest in the changing landscape. Instead, he began to focus on groups of figures and odd imaginary characters. Unknown to his friends and the public, Lowry produced a series of erotic works that were not seen until after his death. The paintings depict the mysterious "Ann" figure, who appears in portraits and sketches produced throughout his lifetime, enduring sexually charged and humiliating tortures. When these works were exhibited at the Art Council's Centenary exhibition at the Barbican in 1988, art critic Richard Dorment wrote in The Daily Telegraph that these works "reveal a sexual anxiety which is never so much as hinted at in the work of the previous 60 years." The group of erotic works, which are sometimes referred to as "the mannequin sketches" or "marionette works", are kept at the Lowry Centre and are available for visitors to see on request. Some are also brought up into the public display area on a rotation system. Manchester author Howard Jacobson has argued that the images are just part of Lowry's melancholy and tortured view of the world and that they would change the public perception of the complexity of his work if they were more widely seen.{{Cite news

| title = Lowry's dark imagination comes to light

| last = Thorpe | first = Vanessa

| newspaper = The Observer

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/mar/25/artnews.art

| date = 25 March 2007 | access-date = 28 April 2012

}}{{Cite news

|title=Let Lowrys see the light

|last=Osuh

|first=Chris

|newspaper=Manchester Evening News

|url=http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1002835_let_lowrys_see_the_light

|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130422035748/http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1002835_let_lowrys_see_the_light

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=22 April 2013

|date=26 March 2007

|access-date=28 April 2012

}}

Death and legacy

File:Grave of L S Lowry.jpeg]]

File:LowryCentre.jpg

Lowry died of pneumonia at the Woods Hospital in Glossop, Derbyshire, on 23 February 1976, aged 88. He was buried in the Southern Cemetery in Manchester, next to his parents. He left an estate valued at £298,459, and a considerable number of artworks by himself and others to Carol Ann Lowry, who, in 2001, obtained trademark protection of the artist's signature.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8068169/Hidden-LS-Lowry-drawings-reveal-artists-erotic-stirrings.html|title=Hidden LS Lowry drawings reveal artist's erotic stirrings|first=Roya|last=Nikkhah|date=16 October 2010|access-date=21 November 2017|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}

Lowry left a cultural legacy, his works often sold for millions of pounds and inspired other artists. The Lowry art gallery in Salford Quays was opened in 2000 at a cost of £106 million; named after him, the {{convert|2000|m2|sqft|adj=on}} gallery houses 55 of his paintings and 278 drawings – the world's largest collection of his work – with up to 100 on display.{{cite news

| title = Royals open Lowry centre

| work = BBC News

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/968911.stm

| date = 12 October 2000 | access-date = 11 July 2008

}} In January 2005, a statue of him was unveiled in Mottram in Longdendale{{Cite web

|title=Lowry bronze unveiled

|work=Manchesteronline.co.uk

|url=http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/s/142/142912_lowry_bronze_unveiled.html

|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120804030626/http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/s/142/142912_lowry_bronze_unveiled.html

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=4 August 2012

|date=17 January 2005

|access-date=1 November 2012

}} 100 yards away from his home from 1948 until his death in 1976. The statue has been a target for vandals since it was unveiled.{{Cite web

|title=Lowry statue too big a draw for vandals

|work=Manchesteronline.co.uk

|url=http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/s/144/144405_lowry_statue_too_big_a_draw_for_vandals.html

|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912143655/http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/s/144/144405_lowry_statue_too_big_a_draw_for_vandals.html

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=12 September 2012

|date=29 January 2005

|access-date=1 November 2012

}} In 2006 the Lowry Centre in Salford hosted a contemporary dance performance inspired by his work.{{cite news

| title = New life breathed into Lowry

| last = Briggs | first = Caroline

| work = BBC News

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5343724.stm

| date = 27 September 2006 | access-date = 11 July 2008

}}

To mark the centenary of his birth in 1987, Royston Futter, director of the L. S. Lowry Centenary Festival, on behalf of the City of Salford and the BBC commissioned the Northern Ballet Theatre and Gillian Lynne to create a dance drama in his honour. A Simple Man was choreographed and directed by Lynne, with music by Carl Davis and starred Christopher Gable and Moira Shearer (in her last dance role). It was broadcast on BBC, for which it won a BAFTA award as the best arts programme in 1988, and also performed live on stage in November 1987.{{Cite web |url=https://northernballet.com/sites/default/files/pdf/A_Simple_Man_Pack.pdf |title=A Simple Man – Resource Pack |website=Northern Ballet |access-date=22 February 2018}}{{Cite web |url=http://awards.bafta.org/award/1988/television/huw-wheldon-award-for-the-best-arts-programme |title=Television {{!}} Huw Wheldon Award For The Best Arts Programme in 1988 |year=1988 |website=BAFTA Awards |language=en |access-date=22 February 2018}} Further performances were held in London at Sadler's Wells in 1988,{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/260318568/ |title=Arts and Entertainment Guide |date=26 April 1988 |work=The Guardian |access-date=22 February 2018}}{{subscription required}} and again in 2009.{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/may/24/northern-ballet-theatre |title=Dance review: Northern Ballet Theatre / Sadler's Wells, London |last=Jennings |first=Luke |date=23 May 2009 |work=The Guardian |access-date=22 February 2018 |language=en}}

In February 2011 a bronze statue of Lowry was installed in the basement of his favourite pub, Sam's Chop House.{{Cite news

|title=Back at his local: Statue of LS Lowry installed at the bar of Sam's Chop House

|newspaper=Manchester Evening News

|url=http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1408770_back_at_his_local_statue_of_ls_lowry_installed_at_the_bar_of_sams_chop_house?all_comments=1

|date=21 February 2011

|access-date=27 May 2014

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112172816/http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1408770_back_at_his_local_statue_of_ls_lowry_installed_at_the_bar_of_sams_chop_house?all_comments=1

|archive-date=12 November 2012

}}

{{External media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage = File:Going to Work - L S Lowry (detail).jpg | video1 =[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-mzLLsgubs Channel 4 News report on the Lowry retrospective exhibition at Tate Britain in 2013]{{cite video|title=L.S. Lowry: a new exhibition |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-mzLLsgubs |website=YouTube.com |publisher=Channel 4 News |access-date=1 January 2023 |date=24 June 2013 |language=en}} }}

In 2013 a retrospective was held at the Tate Britain in London, his first there.{{Cite news

| title = Tate Britain to stage LS Lowry exhibition for the first time

| last = Brown | first = Mark

| newspaper = The Guardian

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jun/24/tate-britain-ls-lowry-exhibition

| date = 24 June 2013 | access-date = 24 June 2013

}}{{Cite news

| title = Little-known Lowry draft 'found' on back of painting in new Tate Britain exhibition

| last = Furness | first = Hannah

| newspaper = The Telegraph

| url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/10139442/Little-known-Lowry-draft-found-on-back-of-painting-in-new-Tate-Britain-exhibition.html

| date = 24 June 2013 | access-date = 24 June 2013

}} In 2014 his first solo exhibition outside the UK was held in Nanjing, China.{{cite news

| title = Why China sees itself in Lowry's paintings of industrial Britain

| work = BBC News

| last = Sudworth | first = John

| date= 7 December 2014

| url = https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30248214

}} One of the 'houses' at Wellacre Academy in Manchester is named after him.{{cite web |title=House System |url=https://www.wellacre.org/parents-carers-and-students/house-system/ |website=Wellacre Academy |access-date=21 October 2019}}

Awards and honours

File:L.S. Lowry 01.JPG

Lowry was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by the University of Manchester in 1945, and Doctor of Letters in 1961. In April 1955 Lowry was elected as an Associate Member of the Royal Academy of Arts and in April 1962 became a full Royal Academician.{{Cite web

| title = L.S. Lowry, R.A.

| publisher = Royal Academy of Arts

| url = http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&_IXTRAIL_=Academicians&person=5777

| access-date = 22 August 2014

}} At the end of December of the same year his membership status evolved to that of Senior Academician having reached the age of 75. He was given the freedom of the city of Salford in 1965.

In 1975 he was awarded two honorary Doctor of Letters degrees by the Universities of Salford and Liverpool. In 1964, the art world celebrated his 77th birthday with an exhibition of his work and that of 25 contemporary artists who had submitted tributes at Monk's Hall Museum, Eccles. The Hallé orchestra performed a concert in his honour and Prime Minister Harold Wilson used Lowry's painting The Pond as his official Christmas card. Lowry's painting Coming Out of School was depicted on a postage stamp of highest denomination in a series issued by the Post Office depicting great British artists in 1968.

Lowry twice declined appointment to the Order of the British Empire: as an Officer (OBE) in 1955, and as a Commander (CBE) in 1961, Lowry saying "There seemed little point.. once mother was dead" (as seen in the end credits of the movie Mrs Lowry & Son).{{Cite news

| title = Queen's honours: People who have turned them down named

| work = BBC News | location = London

| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16736495

| date = 26 January 2012 | access-date = 26 January 2012

}} He turned down a knighthood in 1968, and appointments to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1972 and 1976. He holds the record for the most honours declined.{{Cite news

| title = Refused honours: who were the people who decided to say no? (And help us find out)

| last = Rogers | first = Simon

| newspaper = The Guardian

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jan/26/refused-honours-list-download

| date = 26 January 2012 | access-date = 18 November 2012

}}

Quotations

File:Going to Work - L S Lowry.jpg (1943), commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee]]

On the industrial landscape
"We went to Pendlebury in 1909 from a residential side of Manchester, and we didn't like it. My father wanted to go to get near a friend for business reasons. We lived next door, and for a long time my mother never got to like it, and at first I disliked it, and then after about a year or so I got used to it, and then I got absorbed in it, then I got infatuated with it. Then I began to wonder if anyone had ever done it. Seriously, not one or two, but seriously; and it seemed to me by that time that it was a very fine industrial subject matter. And I couldn't see anybody at that time who had done it – and nobody had done it, it seemed."{{cite web|last1=Anon|title=Lowry, L S - Various street scenes|url=https://allaboutheaven.org/observations/13486/221/lowry-l-s-various-street-scenes-015417|website=All About Heaven.org|access-date=21 February 2018}}
"Most of my land and townscape is composite. Made up; part real and part imaginary ... bits and pieces of my home locality. I don't even know I'm putting them in. They just crop up on their own, like things do in dreams."{{cite news|last1=Howard|first1=Michael|title=Lowry and the city|url=https://www.ft.com/content/f56915fe-d3c0-11e2-95d4-00144feab7de |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/f56915fe-d3c0-11e2-95d4-00144feab7de |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription|access-date=21 February 2018|work=Financial Times|date=14 June 2013}}
On his style
"I wanted to paint myself into what absorbed me ... Natural figures would have broken the spell of it, so I made my figures half unreal. Some critics have said that I turned my figures into puppets, as if my aim were to hint at the hard economic necessities that drove them. To say the truth, I was not thinking very much about the people. I did not care for them in the way a social reformer does. They are part of a private beauty that haunted me. I loved them and the houses in the same way: as part of a vision.
"I am a simple man, and I use simple materials: ivory black, vermilion, prussian blue, yellow ochre, flake white and no medium. That's all I've ever used in my paintings. I like oils ... I like a medium you can work into over a period of time."{{cite web|last1=Garrat|first1=Karen|title=LS Lowry: Uncovering An Enigmatic Beauty In The Proletariat|url=https://www.artlyst.com/reviews/ls-lowry-uncovering-an-enigmatic-beauty-in-the-proletariat/|publisher=Artlyst|date=2 July 2013}}
On painting his "Seascapes"
"It's the battle of life – the turbulence of the sea ... 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 stay and came on and on and on and on ... That would be the end of it all."{{cite web|author=Yan|title=Why I love Lowry, by British Sea Power's Yan|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/why-I-love-Lowry-British-Sea-Power-Yan|date=12 September 2013|publisher=Tate Gallery|access-date=21 February 2018|archive-date=22 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180222104758/http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/why-I-love-Lowry-British-Sea-Power-Yan|url-status=dead}}
On art
"You don't need brains to be a painter, just feelings."
"I am not an artist. I am a man who paints."{{cite book|last1=Thompson|first1=Zoë|title=Urban Constellations: Spaces of Cultural Regeneration in Post-Industrial Britain|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|page=79|chapter=The Lowry or Class, Mass Spectatorship and the Image|isbn=9781472427243}}
"If people call me a Sunday painter, I'm a Sunday painter who paints every day of the week."{{cite news|last1=Hamilton|first1=Adrian|title=LS Lowry and his legacy: The matchstick man is back in vogue at last as Tate Britain showcases first retrospective of Manchester's controversial painter|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/ls-lowry-and-his-legacy-the-matchstick-man-is-back-in-vogue-at-last-as-tate-britain-showcases-first-8629350.html|access-date=21 February 2018|work=The Independent|date=24 May 2013}}

Works

Lowry's work is held in many public and private collections. The largest collection is held by Salford City Council and displayed at The Lowry. Its collection has about 400 works.{{Citation

|title = The Lowry

|publisher = Art UK

|url = https://artuk.org/visit/venues/the-lowry-6550

|access-date = 25 January 2013

|df = dmy-all

}} X-ray analyses have revealed hidden figures under his drawings – the "Ann" figures. Going to the Match, formerly owned by the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), is displayed at The Lowry along with a preparatory pencil sketch.{{cite web |title=Going to the Match |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/going-to-the-match-162423 |website=artuk.org |publisher=Art UK |access-date=16 January 2024 |language=en}}

The Tate Gallery in London owns 23 works. The City of Southampton owns The Floating Bridge, The Canal Bridge and An Industrial Town. His work is featured at MOMA, in New York City. The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu in Christchurch, New Zealand has Factory at Widnes (1956) in its collection. The painting was one of the gallery's most important acquisitions of the 1950s and remains the highlight of its collection of modern British art.{{Cite web

|title=Factory At Widnes – Collection | Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu

|publisher=Christchurchartgallery.org.nz

|url=http://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/collection/browse/69-353/

|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707233603/http://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/collection/browse/69-353/

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=7 July 2012

|date=13 October 2004

|access-date=1 November 2012

}}

In the early days of his career Lowry was a member of the Manchester Group of Lancashire artists, exhibiting with them at Margo Ingham's Mid-Day Studios in Manchester.Manchester Evening News, 25 October and 26 November 1948 He made a small painting of the Mid-Day Studios which is in the collection of the Manchester City Art Gallery.{{cite web|url=https://www.artfund.org/supporting-museums/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/9465/mid-day-studios-manchester-l-s-lowry|title=Mid-Day Studios, Manchester by L S Lowry|access-date=13 December 2016}}

During his life Lowry made about 1,000 paintings and over 8,000 drawings.

=Selected paintings=

1920 St Augustine's church{{cite book|last1=Sandling|first1=Judith|last2=Leber|first2=Mike|title=Lowry's City|date=2000|publisher=Lowry Press|isbn=1-902970-05-5}}
1925 Going to the Mill{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/may/02/ls-lowry-painting-going-to-the-mill-sells-at-auction|archive-url=|title=LS Lowry painting bought for £10 in 1926 sells at auction for £800,000|date=2 May 2025|work=The Guardian|accessdate=3 May 2025|archivedate=}}
1928 Irk Place
1935 The Fever Van{{Cite web

| title = 'The Fever Van', L.S. Lowry

| publisher = Liverpool museums

| url = http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/paintings/20c/item.aspx?tab=summary&item=wag+363&hl=1&coll=9

| access-date = 1 November 2012

}}

1936 Laying a Foundation Stone — the mayor of Swinton and Pendlebury, laying a foundation stone in Clifton{{Cite web

| title = L.S. Lowry Laying a Foundation Stone 1936 L.S. Lowry

| publisher = Ls-lowry.com

| url = http://www.ls-lowry.com/work/lafs.html

| access-date = 1 November 2012

| archive-date = 8 March 2012

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120308035910/http://www.ls-lowry.com/work/lafs.html

| url-status = dead

}}

1938 A Cricket Match — sold for £1.2m at Sotheby's, in June 2019, during the 2019 Cricket World Cup{{Cite web|url=https://guernseypress.com/news/uk-news/2019/06/18/lowry-cricket-painting-fetches-12-million-at-auction/|title=Lowry cricket painting fetches £1.2 million at auction|date=18 June 2019|website=guernseypress.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/everyones-talking-about-the-cricket-world-cup|title=Everyone's Talking About...The Cricket World Cup|first=Martin|last=Dean|date=10 June 2019|website=Sothebys.com}}
1941 Houses on a Hill[https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/houses-near-a-mill-60954 Houses on a Hill] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105035204/http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/houses-near-a-mill-60954 |date=5 January 2016 }}, Lowry, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, BBC, retrieved August 2011
1943 A Fylde Farm — collected by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and hung at Clarence House{{cite news

|title = A Queen and 3 Future Kings

|newspaper = The Daily Express

|via = PressReader

|url = https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-express/20131025/282553015980959

|date = 25 October 2013

|access-date = 6 February 2018

}}{{cite news

|title = Fylde scene graces royal palace wall

|newspaper = Lytham St Annes Express

|url = https://www.lythamstannesexpress.co.uk/news/fylde-scene-graces-royal-palace-wall-1-808917

|date = 13 November 2007

|access-date = 6 February 2018

|archive-date = 7 February 2018

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180207122141/https://www.lythamstannesexpress.co.uk/news/fylde-scene-graces-royal-palace-wall-1-808917

|url-status = dead

}}

1943 Going to Work — painted as a war artist and in the collection of the Imperial War Museum.{{Cite web

| title = Going to Work

| author = Imperial War Museum | author-link = Imperial War Museum

| work = IWM Collections Search

| url = http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/17026

| access-date = 8 March 2013

}}

1945 V.E. Day{{Cite web

| title = L.S. Lowry V E Day Celebrations 1945 L.S. Lowry

| publisher = Ls-lowry.com

| url = http://www.ls-lowry.com/work/lls01.html

| access-date = 1 November 2012

| archive-date = 8 March 2012

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120308035849/http://www.ls-lowry.com/work/lls01.html

| url-status = dead

}}

1946 Good Friday, Daisy Nook — sold in 2007 for £3.8 million (then record price for a Lowry)Daily Telegraph, 31 January 2011, p.8
1947 A River Bank{{Cite web

| title = L S Lowry A River Bank 1947 L.S. Lowry

| publisher = Ls-lowry.com

| url = http://www.ls-lowry.com/work/arb47.html

| date = 17 November 2006

| access-date = 1 November 2012

| archive-date = 9 October 2015

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151009032823/http://www.ls-lowry.com/work/arb47.html

| url-status = dead

}} — bought in 1951 by Bury Council for £150 and controversially sold in 2006, for £1.25 million at Christie's, by the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, towards funding a £10 million budget deficit{{cite news

| title = Council's Lowry sold for £1.25m

| work = BBC News

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6157204.stm

| date = 17 November 2006 | access-date = 7 May 2010

}}

1947 Iron Works
1947 Cranes and Ships, Glasgow Docks — acquired by Glasgow City Council at Christie's in November 2005 for £198,400, specifically for display in the new Riverside Museum{{Cite web

| title = Lowry's painting of Glasgow docks - comes home

| publisher = 24hourmuseum.org.uk

| url = http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/painting+%26+drawing/art32729

| date = 23 December 2005

| access-date = 30 April 2008

| archive-date = 30 September 2012

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120930102251/http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/painting+%26+drawing/art32729

| url-status = dead

}}{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@AnaJosh/glasgows-award-winning-museum-riverside-museum-4ac4faa5e56d|title=Glasgow’s award-winning Museum, Riverside Museum | by Ana Josh | Medium}}

1949 Agricultural fair, Mottram-in-Longdendale
1949 The Cripples - features number of disabled people in a park, including Lowry as a disabled person (centre). The people are a mixture of imaginary and real people. For example, it is believed that a man known locally known as 'Johnny on wheels' is depicted to the right.
1949 The Football Match — not seen in public for two decades before May 2011 when offered for sale at Christie's; later sold for £5.6 million, a record price for a Lowry painting.{{cite news

| title = LS Lowry work The Football Match fetches record £5.6m

| work = BBC News

| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13560209

| date = 26 May 2011 | access-date = 26 June 2011

}}

1949 The Regatta
1950 The Pond{{Cite web

| title = 'The Pond', L.S. Lowry

| publisher = Tate

| url = http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=9010&searchid=9041&tabview=image

| access-date = 1 November 2012

}} — the image was used as a Christmas card by Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1964

1952 Ancoats Hospital Outpatients Hall — a rare internal scene, showing Ancoats Hospital and given to The Whitworth Gallery in 1975.
1953 Football Ground — fans converging on Bolton Wanderers's old football ground Burnden Park; painted for a competition run by the Football Association, it was later renamed Going to the Match and was bought by the Professional Footballers' Association for a record £1.9 million in 1999.{{cite news

| title = Footballers' union nets Lowry

| work = BBC News

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/545023.stm

| date = 1 December 1999 | access-date = 1 November 2012

}} It was resold at Christie's for £7,846,500 in October 2022.{{cite web |title=LS Lowry's painting Sunday Afternoon sold for £6.3m |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-68621300 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=7 January 2025 |date=20 March 2024}}

1953 The Railway Platform, a scene of railway passengers standing on the platform at Pendlebury railway station{{cite news |last1=Keeling |first1=Neal |title=Lowry painting of Pendlebury railway station sells for £1.6m at auction |url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/lowry-painting-pendlebury-railway-station-10504585 |access-date=14 March 2023 |work=Manchester Evening News |date=26 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151212200329/https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/lowry-painting-pendlebury-railway-station-10504585 |archive-date=12 December 2015 |url-status=live }}
1954 Piccadilly Gardens, a view of the former sunken gardens in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, now in Manchester Art Gallery collection{{cite web |title=Piccadilly Gardens {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/piccadilly-gardens-205463 |website=artuk.org |access-date=7 August 2021 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Bradburn |first1=Jean & John |title=Central Manchester Through Time |date=15 January 2016 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-4456-4954-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4RqtCwAAQBAJ&dq=lowry+piccadilly+gardens&pg=PT143 |access-date=7 August 2021 }}
1955 A Young Man{{Cite web

| title = A Young Man, 1955

| publisher = Tate.org.uk

| url = http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=66666661&workid=9027&searchid=8815&tabview=image

| access-date = 1 November 2012

}}

1955 Industrial Landscape{{Cite web

| title = Industrial Landscape, 1955

| publisher = Tate.org.uk

| url = http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=699999961&workid=9026&searchid=10570&tabview=image

| access-date = 1 November 2012

}}

1956 Fairground at Daisy Nook
1957 Sunday Afternoon — sold at Sotheby's in March 2024 for £6.3 million by Sir Keith and Lady Showering, who had owned it since 1967. It is one of Lowry's largest canvasses.{{YouTube|jVH1M6yx9uQ|L.S. Lowry Masterpiece Unseen for 57 Years {{!}} Christie's }}
1960 Old church and steps

=Drawings=

1924 View from a window of the Royal Technical College
1924 The Flat Iron Market
1928 Newton Mill and bowling green
1930 Swinton Industrial Schools
1936 Dewars Lane (Dewars Lane is now part of the Lowry Trail in Berwick-upon-Tweed){{cite web|last1=Anon|title=Walks from our Retreats – The Lowry Trail|url=https://www.coastalretreats.co.uk/walks-from-our-retreats-the-lowry-trail/|access-date=22 February 2018|date=5 June 2017}}
1942 A Bit of Wenlock Edge{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}
1947 Figures in lane
1945? St Luke's Church, Old Street, London{{Cite web

| title = Surprise Lowry print windfall for Aberaeron Red Cross

| work = BBC News

| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-10802180

| date = 29 July 2010 | access-date = 13 October 2013

}}

1953 Agecroft regatta

=Stolen Lowry works=

Five Lowry art works were stolen from the Grove Fine Art Gallery in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport on 2 May 2007. The most valuable were The Viaduct, estimated value of £700,000 and The Tanker Entering the Tyne, which is valued at over £500,000. The Surgery, The Bridge at Ringley and The Street Market were also stolen.{{Cite web

| title = Lowry's valuable work stolen from Grove Fine Art gallery

| work = ls-lowry.com

| url = http://www.ls-lowry.com/news257.html

| date = 2 May 2007 | access-date = 25 August 2021

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160306085600/http://ls-lowry.com/news257.html

| archive-date = 6 March 2016

| url-status = dead

}} The paintings were later found in a house in Halewood near Liverpool.{{Cite news|last=Neal Kealing|date=29 July 2011|title=Treasure trove of LS Lowry classics stolen from Stockport art collector's home are found|newspaper=Manchester Evening News|url=|access-date=}} Only one of the four robbers was caught and convicted; two other men were later convicted for possession of the stolen works.{{cite news |last1=Nugent |first1=Helen |title=Victim of LS Lowry paintings robbery relieved after handlers jailed |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/mar/22/ls-lowry-paintings-robbery |access-date=25 August 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=22 March 2012}}

A further pencil drawing, "The Skater", has never been returned.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

= Attributed works in 2015 =

In July 2015 three works – Lady with Dogs, Darby and Joan and Crowd Scene – featured in the BBC One series Fake or Fortune?. The presenters concluded that the works were genuine, despite their weak provenance and the fact that Lowry was "probably the most faked British artist, his deceptively simple style of painting making him a soft target for forgers". An important element in the programme's assessment was Lowry's claim to have used only five colours including lead white, whereas a contemporary photograph showed that he had also used titanium white and zinc white.{{Cite web | title = BBC iPlayer - Fake or Fortune? - Series 4: 1. Lowry | publisher = BBC | url =https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0612kxh/fake-or-fortune-series-4-1-lowry | date = 5 July 2015 | access-date = 5 July 2015}}

= Discovered work =

The Mill, Pendlebury, a painting never publicly exhibited or featured in any book, was found in the estate of Leonard D. Hamilton, a British-American researcher, after his death in 2019. Hamilton was a Manchester Grammar School boy who studied at Balliol College, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge, before moving to the US in 1949. The work was listed at Christie's with an estimate of £700,000 to £1 million,{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/dec/23/overlooked-ls-lowry-painting-re-emerges-after-70-years|title=Overlooked LS Lowry painting re-emerges after 70 years|first=Mark|last=Brown|date=23 December 2019|newspaper=The Guardian}} and sold on 21 January 2020, to a private collector, for £2.65 million.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51173894|title='Lost' Lowry painting fetches £2.65m at auction|work=BBC News|date=22 January 2020}}

Art market

In March 2014 fifteen of Lowry's works, from the A.J. Thompson Collection, were auctioned at Sotheby's in London; the total sale estimate of £15 million was achieved, even though two paintings failed to reach their reserve price and were withdrawn.{{Cite news

| title = LS Lowry collection sells for £15m at auction

| publisher = BBC

| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-26708466

| access-date = 27 June 2015

| work = BBC News

| date = 25 March 2014

}} Thompson, owner of the Salford Express, collected only Lowry paintings, starting in 1982. The auction included the paintings Peel Park, Salford and Piccadilly Circus, London, Lowry's most expensive painting at auction to date, which fetched £5.6 million in 2011 but only £5.1 million in 2014. Lowry painted very few London scenes, and only two depict Piccadilly Circus.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/ls-lowry-painting-bought-for-56m-6263441.html|title=LS Lowry painting bought for £5.6m|work=The Independent|date=17 November 2011|access-date=4 May 2018}}

In popular culture

In January 1968, rock band Status Quo paid tribute to Lowry in their first hit single "Pictures of Matchstick Men".{{Cite web

| title = Songs About Laurence Stephen Lowry

| last = Headon | first = Tanya

| work = FreakyTrigger

| publisher = Tom Ewing

| url = https://freakytrigger.co.uk/hate/2002/12/songs-about-laurence-stephen-lowry/

| date = 17 December 2002 | access-date = 17 August 2012

}}

In 1978, Brian and Michael reached number one in the UK Singles Chart with the tribute single "Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs".{{cite book | last=Welch | first=Chris | title=One hit wonders | publisher=New Holland|publication-place=London | date=2003 | isbn=1-84330-496-1 | oclc=52784084 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/arts/page/0,,1074166,00.html|via=The Guardian (extract)}}
Manchester rock band Oasis released a music video for the song "The Masterplan", to promote their 2006 compilation album Stop the Clocks, using animation in the style of his paintings.{{youTube|dPPi2D6GK7A|Oasis - The Masterplan}} The video sets the group in a number of Lowry scenes, but clues as to their modernity are given by inclusion of such items as a satellite dish.{{Cite news |url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/music/oasis-masterplan-to-step-into-world-of-lowry-1045064|title=Oasis' Masterplan to step into world of Lowry |first=Dianne |last=Bourne |date=15 February 2007 |work=Manchester Evening News |access-date=29 August 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://thelowryblog.com/2020/04/24/oasis-ls-lowry-inspired-video-for-the-masterplan/|title=OASIS' LS LOWRY-INSPIRED VIDEO FOR THE MASTERPLAN |work=thelowryblog.com |date=24 April 2020 |access-date=29 August 2021}}
In August 2010, the play Figures Half Unreal was performed by the Brass Bastion theatre company in Berwick-upon-Tweed where Lowry was a regular visitor.{{Cite web

|title=Theatre puts Berwick firmly on the map

|author=David Whetstone

|publisher=JournalLive

|url=http://www.journallive.co.uk/culture-newcastle/theatre-in-newcastle/2010/08/04/theatre-puts-berwick-firmly-on-the-map-61634-26990836

|date=4 August 2010

|access-date=1 November 2012

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321213423/http://www.journallive.co.uk/culture-newcastle/theatre-in-newcastle/2010/08/04/theatre-puts-berwick-firmly-on-the-map-61634-26990836/

|archive-date=21 March 2012

}}

On 1 November 2012, Google celebrated his 125th birthday with a Google Doodle.{{cite web|url=https://doodles.google/doodle/ls-lowrys-125th-birthday/|title=L.S. Lowry's 125th Birthday|website=Google|date=1 November 2012}}
Lowry is mentioned in the chorus of the Manic Street Preachers' song "30-Year War" on their 2013 album Rewind the Film:{{Cite web

| title = 30 Year War Lyrics - Manic Street Preachers

| publisher = Lyricsfreak.com

| url = https://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/manic+street+preachers/30+year+war_21068749.html

| access-date = 9 May 2016

}}{{better source needed|date=February 2025}}

{{Blockquote

So you hide all Lowry's paintings

For 30 years or more

'Cos he turned down a knighthood

And you must now settle the score

}}

The 2019 film Mrs Lowry & Son, directed by Adrian Noble and starring Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Spall, depicts the fraught relationship between Lowry and his elderly bed-ridden mother between 1934 and 1939.{{cite web |last1=Barraclough |first1=Leo |title=Timothy Spall, Vanessa Redgrave's 'Mrs Lowry & Son' Wraps Filming, New Image Released (EXCLUSIVE) |url=https://variety.com/2018/film/global/timothy-spall-vanessa-redgrave-mrs-lowry-son-2-1202704761/ |website=Variety |publisher=Penske Media Corporation |access-date=27 August 2019 |date=20 February 2018}}
Sunday painter by Dutch band Nits is a song inspired by Lowry.{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/nits.nl/videos/671725033967346/|title=NITS…Sunday Painter. Our new single and video will be released today…February 24 2022. The song is about L.S.Lowry, a painter who in the forties painted... |via=www.facebook.com}}{{better source needed|reason=social media|date=February 2025}}

References

{{Reflist| refs =

{{Cite web| title = The Cripples (1949)

| publisher = leninimports.com

| url = http://www.leninimports.com/ls_lowry_the_cripples_oil.html

| access-date = 26 May 2015

}}

{{Cite web

|title=Policy implications of the social perceptions of disabled people

|last1=Massie

|first1=Bert

|publisher=King's College

|location=London

|url=http://www.jcmd.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Perceptions-of-Disabled.pdf

|date=18 April 2011

|url-status=usurped

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526195227/http://www.jcmd.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Perceptions-of-Disabled.pdf

|archive-date=26 May 2015

}}

=Sources=

Andrews, Allen. The Life of L. S. Lowry, A Biography (London: Jupiter Books, 1977)
Clarke, Hilda Margery. Lowry Himself (Southampton: The First Gallery, 1987) {{ISBN|0-9512947-0-9}}
Howard, Michael. Lowry — A Visionary Artist (Lausanne, Switzerland: Acatos, 1999)
Leber, Michael and Sandling, Judith (eds). L. S. Lowry (Oxford: Phaidon, 1987)
Leber, Michael and Sandling, Judith. Lowry's City: A Painter and His Locale (London: Lowry House, 2001)
Levy, Nichael. The Paintings of L. S. Lowry: Oils and Watercolours (London: Jupiter Books, 1975)
Levy, Michael. The Drawings of L. S. Lowry: Public and Private (London: Jupiter Books, 1976)
Lowry, L. S. L. S. Lowry, R. A.: A Selection of Masterpieces (London: Crane Kalman Gallery, 1994)
McLean, David. L. S. Lowry (London: The Medici Society, 1978)
Marshall, Tilly. Life with Lowry (London: Hutchinson, 1981) {{ISBN|0-09-144090-4}}
Rhode, Shelley. A Private View of L. S. Lowry (London: Collins, 1979)
Rohde, Shelley. The Lowry Lexicon — An A–Z of L. S. Lowry (Salford Quays: Lowry Press, 1999)
Sieja, Doreen. The Lowry I Knew (London: Jupiter Books, 1983)
Spalding, Julian. Lowry (Oxford: Phaidon, New York: Dutton, 1979)
Timperley, W. H. (will illustrations by L. S. Lowry), A Cotswold Book (London: Jonathan Cape, 1931)
MacDougall, Sarah. Refiguring the 50s : Joan Eardley, Sheila Fell, Eva Frankfurther, Josef Herman, L S Lowry (Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, 2014)

External links

{{Art UK bio}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120116183644/http://www.thelowry.com/gallery/work-by-ls-lowry-people Work by LS Lowry: People]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120116184320/http://www.thelowry.com/gallery/work-by-ls-lowry-places Work by LS Lowry: Places]

Category:1887 births

Category:1976 deaths

Category:20th-century English painters

Category:Artists from Lancashire

Category:Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University

Category:Alumni of the University of Salford

Category:English male painters

Category:English people of Northern Ireland descent

Category:British modern painters

Category:Naïve painters

Category:People from Pendlebury

Category:People from Stretford