Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Lot 24AR
Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A.(British, 1887-1976)W Dublin 41.9 x 29.6 cm. (16 1/2 x 11 5/8 in.)
13 June 2018, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £25,000 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Modern British & Irish Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Christopher Dawson
Head of Department
Ingram Reid
Director
Kieran O'Boyle
Head of Ireland & Northen Ireland
Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A. (British, 1887-1976)
W Dublin
signed and dated 'LS Lowry 1969' (lower right); titled 'W Dublin' (lower left)
pencil, felt tip pen and biro
41.9 x 29.6 cm. (16 1/2 x 11 5/8 in.)
signed and dated 'LS Lowry 1969' (lower right); titled 'W Dublin' (lower left)
pencil, felt tip pen and biro
41.9 x 29.6 cm. (16 1/2 x 11 5/8 in.)
Footnotes
Provenance
Sale; Sotheby's, London, 20 July 1988, lot 357, where acquired by the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.
According to Shelley Rohde, Lowry's biographer, the artist told on a number of occasions how his great grandfather, Jacob Lowry, a bootmaker, moved from Belfast to Port Patrick in Scotland in 1829. Evidently, he was proud of his Irish heritage and spent holidays during the 1960s in the Republic of Ireland (from where he visited Belfast in 1967) with his good friend and artist Pat Cooke and her husband. Lowry had met Pat Cooke when she was a teenager. Her father, Pat Gerrard, was a builder who worked on Lowry's new house he bought in 1948 at Mottram-in-Longdendale, where he would live for the rest of his life. She was an aspiring artist who became one the artist's protégés, later progressing to the Slade School in London.
Pat Cooke's sense of humour clearly appealed to Lowry and she made the perfect travel companion. They spent at least five holidays together in Ireland up until 1970 (when Lowry was 83). It should be noted these were the only times Lowry journeyed overseas. Shelley Rohdes quotes an amusing Pat Cooke anecdote relating to one of their Irish holidays:
'He did tease me, though. When we went to pick him up for the Holyhead ferry I remember him opening his door with a doleful face and saying: "I can't go," which was just great when you had booked hotels and organised everything to a hair's breadth. I played along and said: "Forget it, kid. I'll just come in and say hello before we go." And as soon as I got in I saw his case there ready. He was just having a joke. After a few minutes' chat he said; "Well, we're ready, aren't we? Where's the car?" (Shelley Rohde, L.S. Lowry, A Biography, Lowry Press, Salford Quays, 1999, pp. 253-254)
