Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A.

(British, 1887-1976)

Street Scene 50.8 x 60.9 cm. (20 x 24 in.)

Footnotes

Provenance
Private Collection, U.K., since circa mid 1970s

Exhibited
London, The Lefevre Gallery, Paintings by L.S. Lowry, 11 May-3 June 1967, cat.no.9 (ill.b&w)

The late husband and father of the present owners was a close friend of the artist Harold Riley (see note for the previous lot). They first met when he took up painting as a hobby and had particularly admired Riley's technique in oils. Having called his gallery to discuss this, he ended up buying several examples and the two men went on to have a long friendship. It was through this bond that the late owner became aware of L.S. Lowry and purchased the present and following lot on Riley's advice.

By 1965 when Street Scene was painted, Lowry was less interested in creating busy compositions of frenetic activity. The setting for this street is, typically, unidentifiable and Lowry presents the viewer with limited visual information to describe the city. The presence of the factories are indicated most prominently by the two chimneys but otherwise a church spire, a lamppost and a few rooftops are all that give a clue as to the mighty throng of what is going on outside the picture plane.

The number of figures is also scaled down when compared to some of the industrial compositions of the 1940s that are literally teeming. Here the people wandering along the street are pushed to the foreground and available for intense scrutiny. Walking left and right in pairs and groups, they guide our eye back and forth across the canvas in their typical splashes of red, black and blue. Unusually though, the artist has included a ghostly frieze of figures silhouetted against the dark wall, lacking all individuality. And there is one character who stands completely still and alone, a gentleman wearing a hat in the lower centre. Perhaps intended as a self-portrait? He faces out, directly, and it feels as if he is looking at us. For a second the picture is turned in on itself, as it is we, outside of the painting, and not them, the anonymous within, who are the subject of fascination.