
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Sold for £43,750 inc. premium
Our Modern British & Irish Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistHead of UK and Ireland
Head of Department
Director
Head of Ireland & Northen Ireland
Provenance
With Henry Donn, Manchester, circa 1976, where acquired by
Dr. Jack Silver
Thence by family descent
'In 1960, a chance visit to Sunderland led to an association with the North-East coast that was to last until his death. "I like Sunderland", he said, "because of the shipping and ship-building and the countryside at the back..."And, on another occasion: "Some people like to go to the theatre, some like to watch television, I just like watching ships".' (Michael Howard, Lowry, A Visionary Artist, Lowry Press, Salford Quays, 2000, p.234)
Ship Entering a Harbour was drawn in 1967, during Lowry's eightieth year, and it likely depicts a trawler returning to the harbour at South Shields, near Sunderland, following a fishing trip out on the North Sea. Despite his fame (1967 saw the Post Office issue a Lowry postage stamp) and wealth at this late stage of his career, Lowry still took vacations to less glamorous parts of the country. In Sunderland, he would stay at the Seaburn Hotel overlooking the water, sketching the activities as they presented themselves.
The present motif of a vessel entering the mouth of a harbour has been seen to symbolise the artist's anxieties concerning the approach of his own death, and as a contemplation of his own mortality. They also serve to remind us that boats and ships in all their forms were of great interest to Lowry from his earliest days as an artist. Indeed, his first known surviving work, Yachts, a pencil dating from 1902 when Lowry was just fifteen, illustrates his fascination from such a young age.